2015–16 National League 2 North

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2015–16 National League 2 North
Countries 
Broadstreet, Sandal
Matches played239
Attendance65,338
(average 273 per match)
Highest attendance1,050
Harrogate v Otley
5 September 2015
Lowest attendance50
South Leicester v Sedgley Park
12 September 2015
South Leicester v Caldy
10 October 2015
Top point scorerEngland Lewis Minikin (Harrogate)
299 points
Top try scorerEngland Nick Royle (Caldy)
25 tries

The 2015–16 National League 2 North is the seventh season (29th overall) of the fourth tier of the English domestic rugby union competitions since the professionalised format of the second division was introduced. There was talk of this being the last season in this format due to RFU changes to tier four which were supposed to result in a restructuring of the league from two regional divisions (north and south) to three (north, south-east and south-west) for the 2016–17 season but this seems to have been put on hold due to protests from the northern clubs who stood to lose revenue from a smaller fixture list.[1][2][3]

Teams joining the division include

National League 3 Midlands).[4][5][6][7][8] A further change this season saw Harrogate play their first game at their new ground at Rudding Lane – a move from their previous ground of Claro Road where they had been stationed for the past 119 years – beating local rivals Otley in front of a club record crowd of 1,050.[9][10][11]

At the end of the season, Macclesfield made an instant return to National League 1 after their relegation the previous season by winning the championship with three games to go, defeating

Caldy to stay in the division.[15] Another interesting feature of the season was Caldy's Nick Royle whose 25 tries saw him finish not only as the top try scorer in the league but also as the record all-time try scorer in the division with 161 tries overall.[16][17]

As league runners up to Macclesfield by some distance, Sedgley Park had to travel down to Hertfordshire to face the 2015–16 National League 2 South runners up, Old Albanian, who hosted the game due to a superior league record. In the end Old Albanian were too good for Sedgley Park, winning 24 – 0 to claim the final promotion place to the 2016–17 National League 1.[18][19]

Structure

The league consists of sixteen teams with all the teams playing each other on a home and away basis to make a total of thirty matches each. There is one automatic promotion place, one play-off place and three relegation places. The champions are promoted to the

National League 3 North
depending on the geographical location of the team.

Participating teams and locations

Eleven of the teams listed below participated in the

National League 3 Midlands
.

Tynedale
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Locations of the 2015–16 National League 2 North teams