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.
Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition, consisting of 10 clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby union system.
The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in South Africa, and the BKT United Rugby Championship in the competition's other territories, the split branding mirroring the format previously adopted in Super Rugby. The Championship represents the highest level of domestic club or franchise rugby in each of its constituent countries.
Rugby league is played across England but is most popular in Northern England, especially Yorkshire and Lancashire where the game originated. These areas are the heartland of rugby league. The sport is also popular in Cumbria where the amateur game is particularly powerful.
John Kear is an English professional rugby league coach, for the Wales national rugby league team. He also works as a pundit for BBC Sport and is a former professional rugby league footballer.
Professional sports leagues are organized in numerous ways. The two most significant types are one that developed in Europe, characterized by a tiered structure using promotion and relegation in order to determine participation in a hierarchy of leagues or divisions, and a North American originated model characterized by its use of franchises, closed memberships, and minor leagues. Both these systems remain most common in their area of origin, although both systems are used worldwide.
Sport in England plays a prominent role in English society. Popular teams sports in England include association football, cricket, field hockey, rugby union, rugby league, and netball. Major individual sports include badminton, athletics, tennis, boxing, golf, cycling, motorsport, and horseracing. Cricket is regarded as the national summer sport. Football is generally considered to be the popular sport, followed by cricket, tennis and rugby. A number of modern sports were codified in England during the nineteenth century, among them cricket, rugby union, rugby league, football, field hockey, bandy, squash, chesstennis, and badminton. The game of baseball was first described in 18th century England.
Exeter University Rugby Football Club (EURFC) is the University of Exeter's rugby club. The men's side boasts nine sides competing in BUCS competitions, as well as a Saturday XV, currently playing in National League 2 West – a level 4 league in the English rugby union system – following their promotion from South West Premier as champions in 2021–22. The University 1st XV compete in BUCS Super Rugby, the flagship university rugby league in the United Kingdom.
The British Universities American Football League (BUAFL) is an American football league contested by university teams in the United Kingdom as part of the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) organisation. The league was formed by the British American Football Association (BAFA), the national governing body of American football in the UK, in 2007 as the successor to the British Collegiate American Football League, after BAFA withdrew its recognition of the British Student American Football Association which ran that league. The BUAFL has been credited with reviving interest in American football in the UK.
The Women's Premiership, also called the RFUW Premiership was the top level of women's rugby union in England until 2017. It was formed in 1990 and was run by the Rugby Football Union for Women. It was superseded in the 2017/18 season by Premier 15s.
Charles River Rugby Football Club, nicknamed The Rats, is an American rugby union club based in Boston which currently competes in New England Rugby Football Union. Charles River has also a women's section.
Counties 1 Western West is an English rugby union league. Originally a single division called Western Counties, in 1996 the division split into two regional leagues called Western Counties North and Western Counties West. Western Counties West was renamed Counties 1 Western West prior to the 2022–23 season and is currently a seventh tier league for clubs based in the south-west of England; mainly Cornwall, Devon and Somerset. The champions are promoted to Regional 2 South West. The number of teams relegated depends on feedback following promotion and relegation in the leagues above, but can be one, two or three, to either Counties 2 Cornwall, Counties 2 Devon or Counties 2 Somerset, depending on location.
The RFU Championship is an English rugby union competition comprising eleven clubs. It is the second level of men's English rugby and is played by both professional and semi-professional players. The competition has existed since 1987, when English clubs were first organised into leagues.
Loughborough Students Rugby Football Club represents Loughborough University in rugby union competition. Of the British universities, Loughborough has unparalleled success, having won the BUCS championship on twenty-seven occasions. It fields sides in the BUCS league, (inter-university) and in the fourth tier of the English rugby union system, National League 2 West. The club has fielded over seventy internationals, many of whom won caps while playing for the club.
Rugby league is played across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but its heartland in parts of Northern England is where the sport is most popular, and is where the majority of professional clubs are based. The sport was first established in the George Hotel, Huddersfield, where 22 clubs split from the Rugby Football Union to form the Northern Rugby Football Union.
Exeter Chiefs is an English professional rugby union club based in Exeter, Devon. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby.
The 2012 Championship 1 was a semi-professional rugby league football competition played in England and Wales, the third tier of the sport in the country. For one season only, the top four teams were promoted to the 2013 Rugby Football League Championship, while the champions of the division were decided by a six-team play-off, which was won by Doncaster, who beat Barrow 16–13 at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
The 2014 Championship 1, known as the Kingstone Press Championship 1 for sponsorship reasons, was a semi-professional rugby league football competition played in England, the third tier of the sport in the country.
Top-level rugby league in 2014 centred on Australasia's 2014 NRL Auckland Nines, 2014 NRL season and the Super League XIX. High-profile representative competitions included the 2014 Rugby League Four Nations and the 2014 State of Origin series.
National League 2 West is a rugby union league at level four in the English rugby union system and provides semi-professional competition for teams in the Midlands and South West England. The remainder of England is covered by two other regional leagues; National League 2 East and National League 2 North. The champion club is promoted to National One. The last two teams are relegated to either Regional 1 Midlands or Regional 1 South West.
