Championship Grand Final

Championship Grand Final

Teams	2
First meeting	2003
Latest meeting	2023
Next meeting	2024
Broadcasters	Sky Sports
Statistics
Meetings total	15
Most wins	Leigh Leopards (3 titles)

The Championship Grand Final (previously the National League One Grand Final) is the championship-deciding game of the Championship competition via the playoffs. Since 2022 the Grand Final has also been used to determine promotion to Super League.

History

2003–2007: Promotion

In 2003 as the Second Division was rebranded National League One and promotion and relegation was reintroduced between the Super League and National League One. Rather than having a traditional one up one down system, the RFL decided to implement a top 6 playoff system that was being used in the Super League at the time to decide promotion.

2008–2014: Licensing

In 2007 it was announced licensing was to be introduced for the 2008 season, replacing promotion and relegation, but the Grand Final would be retained and the division would be rebranded the Championship.

were the first teams to be awarded Super League licenses and both teams reached the Grand Final which was reduced to being decided by a 5 team playoff, however it would return to six teams the following season.

In 2013, the playoffs were expanded for the first time to eight teams as it had been seen to be a success in the Super League for a number of years before. The eight team playoff would be the last before it was announced the Championship Grand Final would be scrapped in 2014 due to a league restructure in 2015.

2015–2018: Million Pound Game

In 2015 the Championship Grand Final was effectively replaced with the Million Pound Game. In the new league structure the top four Championship clubs would form a mini league with the bottom four Super League clubs. Teams finishing in the top three were promoted to Super League while teams in the bottom three were relegated to the Championship, meanwhile teams finishing 4th and 5th would play each other in the Million Pound Game for the final Super League place. In the four years it was contested three Championship clubs competed in it with 2018 being the only time both teams in it were from the Championship.^[1]

2019–present: Reintroduction

After scrapping the Super 8s in 2019 the RFL Championship Grand Final returned as the promotion deciding game.^[2][3] Despite this, the "Million Pound Game" name was still kept for marking purposes until 2022 season.^[4][5]

Results

Year	Winners	Score	Runner-up	Stadium	Attendance
2003	Salford	31–14	Leigh	Halton Stadium	9,186
2004	Leigh	32–16	Whitehaven		11,005
2005	Castleford	36–8	Whitehaven		13,300
2006	Hull KR	29–16	Widnes	Halliwell Jones Stadium
2007	Castleford	42–10	Widnes	Headingley	20,814
2008	Salford	36–18	Celtic Crusaders	Halton Stadium	7,104
2009	Barrow	26–18	Halifax	Halliwell Jones Stadium	11,398
2010	Halifax	23–22	Featherstone		9,443
2011	Featherstone	40–4	Sheffield		7,263
2012	Sheffield	20–16	Featherstone		6,409
2013	Sheffield	19–12	Batley	Leigh Sports Village	6,800
2014	Leigh	36–12	Featherstone	Headingley	9,164
For 2015-2018 see Million Pound Game
2019	Toronto Wolfpack	24–6	Featherstone Rovers	Lamport Stadium	9,974
2020	Season cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic[6]
2021	Toulouse Olympique	34–12	Featherstone Rovers	Stade Ernest-Wallon	9,235
2022	Leigh Centurions	44–12	Batley Bulldogs	Leigh Sports Village	7,233
2023	London Broncos	18–14	Toulouse Olympique	Stade Ernest-Wallon

Winners

Club	Wins	Runners-up	Winning Years
Salford Red Devils	2	0	2003, 2008
Castleford Tigers	2	0	2005, 2007
Leigh Centurions	3	1	2004, 2014, 2022
Sheffield Eagles	2	1	2012, 2013
Hull Kingston Rovers	1	0	2006
Barrow Raiders	1	0	2009
Halifax	1	1	2010
Featherstone Rovers	1	5	2011
Toronto Wolfpack	1	0	2019
Toulouse Olympique	1	1	2021
London Broncos	1	0	2023
Whitehaven	0	2	N/A
Widnes Vikings	0	2	N/A
Celtic Crusaders	0	1	N/A
Batley Bulldogs	0	2	N/A

See also

• Super League Grand Final
• League 1 Promotion Final
• Championship Leaders' Shield

References