The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be either a single game, a series of games, or a tournament, and may use a single-elimination system or one of several other different playoff formats. Playoff, in regard to international fixtures, is to qualify or progress to the next round of a competition or tournament.
The National Provincial Championship (NPC), known for sponsorship reasons as the Bunnings NPC, is a professional rugby union competition for New Zealand provincial unions consisting of 14 teams, divided equally between the Premiership Division and the Championship Division. The NPC remains the second highest level of professional rugby union in New Zealand, after Super Rugby. The NPC's 11-week regular and finals season runs from two weeks after Super Rugby ends to the third week after Labour Day, with each team playing 10 games and having one week playing twice. Following the conclusion of the regular season, four teams from each division advance to their respective play-offs, a single-elimination tournament of semi-finals and final.
The English Football League Championship is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the English football league system after the Premier League. The league is contested by 24 clubs.
The Rugby League European Championship is a rugby league football tournament for European national teams that was first held in 1935.
Japan Rugby League One is a rugby union competition in Japan. It is the highest level of professional rugby competition in the country. The Japan Rugby Football Union created the competition in 2003, by absorbing the Japan Company Rugby Football Championship, to drive up the overall standard and popularity of the sport and improve the results of the Japan national rugby union team. The chief architect of the league was Hiroaki Shukuzawa who strongly felt the urgency of improving Japanese domestic company rugby to a professional level which would allow Japan to compete more convincingly at Rugby World Cups.
The Rugby Europe International Championships is the European Championship for tier 2 and tier 3 rugby union nations.
The India national rugby union team was admitted to the IRB in 2001, but it took three years before India won a match, beating Pakistan 56–3 in the third tier competition of the Asian Biennial tournament.
The Sri Lanka national rugby union team, known as the Tuskers, represents Sri Lanka in men's international rugby union. The team has yet to make their debut at the Rugby World Cup. They have the longest tradition of organised club rugby in Asia, dating back to 1879, which was just 8 years after the founding of the world's first rugby union in England. They regularly compete in the Asian Five Nations tournament and are currently in Division I. In the 2010 tournament, they made it to the finals beating Chinese Taipei 37 to 7.
Old Albanian Rugby Football Club (OAs) is a rugby union club based in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. The club currently plays in National League 2 South following their relegation from National League 1 at the end of the 2017–18 season.
The British rugby league system is based on a five-tier structure administered by the Rugby Football League.
The Asia Rugby Championship for women's national fifteen-a-side teams is a rugby union tournament that has been contested since 2006. Organised by Asia Rugby, there are currently two competition divisions. The championship is also the continental qualifying tournament for Asian women's teams in the lead up to the Rugby World Cup.
The Asia Rugby Championship, or ARC, is an annual rugby union competition held amongst national rugby sides within the Asia Rugby region. The competition was originally known as the Asian Rugby Football Tournament when founded in 1969, and was called the Asian Five Nations from 2008 to 2014.
South American Rugby Championship refers to the continental rugby championships for South America, organized by Sudamérica Rugby. The current name of the championships is South American Six Nations, implemented in 2018. Throughout history, South American Championships have also existed for lower divisions of the rugby union championships, as well as youth and women tournaments, and editions for rugby sevens.
The Shaughnessy playoff system is a method of determining the champion of a sports league that is not in a divisional alignment. This format is also known as the Argus finals system. It involves the participation of the top four teams in the league standings in a single elimination tournament. While the first round of the playoffs involve the pairing of the first- and fourth-place teams in one contest and the second- and third-place teams in the other, a variant of the Shaughnessy playoffs would pair the first- and third-place teams in one semifinal round and the second- and fourth-place teams in the other. In either variant, the winners of the first two games would then compete for the league championship. Some lower-level leagues use a Shaughnessy playoff for purposes of promotion to the next-higher league.
The Rugby Europe Under-18 Championship is an annual rugby union championship for Under-18 national teams, held since 2004. The championship is organised by rugby's European governing body, Rugby Europe.
In the Asian Region for 2015 Rugby World Cup qualifying, Japan took the sole qualification spot, Asia 1 by winning Round 3: 2014 Asian Five Nations, while second placed Hong Kong qualified for the repechage playoff.
The 2015 Asia Rugby Championship, or ARC, was the inaugural tri-nations series for top-level rugby union in Asia and the twenty-eighth continental championship for the ARFU nations. The Asia Rugby Championship replaced the former Asian Five Nations in 2015, with only three nations competing in the top division instead of the previous five. The inaugural series included Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea. Other Asian nations competed in the lower division tournaments.
The 2016 Asia Rugby Championship division tournaments refers to the divisions played within the annual international rugby union tournament for the Asian region. The Asia Rugby Championship (ARC) replaced the Asian Five Nations tournament in 2015. The main tournament is now contested by the top three teams in Asia. The other national teams in Asia compete in three divisions.
Qualifying for the 2019 Rugby World Cup for Asia Rugby began in May 2016 and ended in early June 2018, where the winner of the qualification process advanced to a cross-regional play-off series against the winner of Round 2 of the Oceania qualification process in June 2018.
The 2017 Asia Rugby Championship, or ARC, was the third annual tri-nations series for top-level rugby union in Asia and the thirtieth continental championship for the Asia Rugby nations. The Asia Rugby Championship replaced the former Asian Five Nations in 2015, with only three nations competing in the top division instead of the previous five. The 2016 series included Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea. Other Asian nations competed in the lower division tournaments.
Hong Kong 
Japan 
South Korea 
