The 2020 RFL League 1 was a professional rugby league football competition played in England and Wales and is the third tier of the sport for Rugby Football League (RFL) affiliated clubs. The sponsors for the league were the bookmakers, Betfred and the league continued to be known as the Betfred League 1.
The league was to follow the same structure that was in place for the 2019 season, consisting of 22 rounds with each of the 11 teams playing 20 fixtures against each other, both home and away, and two bye rounds. The team finishing top would have won automatic promotion to the 2021 Championship and be named league champions for 2020. The teams finishing second to sixth were meet in a series of play-off games culminating in the League 1 Play-Off Final. The winner of this match would also be promoted to the Championship for 2021.
The season did sees the introduction of golden point extra time but no matches went to extra time before the season was suspended and subsequently abandoned. Extra-time was to have consisted of two periods of five minutes but unlike the version in use in the Super League where winner takes all, in League 1 each team would earn a point for a game where the scores finish level at the end of normal time with a third point awarded to the first team to score during extra-time.
On 16 March the structure and timing of the competition was placed in doubt as all rugby league games were suspended until 3 April at least as part of the United Kingdom's response to the coronavirus pandemic. The suspension of the season was extended to indefinite.
A discussion between the RFL and club officials in May saw seven of the 11 clubs reject a suggestion that the season could recommence with games being played behind closed doors. The RFL board met on 20 July and having consulted with the League 1 clubs decided to abandon the 2020 season as the majority of clubs did not support playing behind closed doors. At the date of suspension only two rounds of matches had been played and the season was declared null and void.
Teams
ColoursClubCityStadiumCapacity* Barrow Raiders Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria Craven Park, Barrow-in-Furness 7,600 Coventry Bears Coventry, West Midlands Butts Park Arena 4,000 Doncaster Doncaster, South Yorkshire Keepmoat Stadium 15,231 Hunslet Leeds, West Yorkshire South Leeds Stadium 4,000 Keighley Cougars Keighley, West Yorkshire Cougar Park 7,800 London Skolars Haringey, London New River Stadium 2,000 Newcastle Thunder Newcastle, Tyne and Wear Kingston Park 10,200 North Wales Crusaders Wrexham, Wales Queensway Stadium 2,000 Rochdale Hornets Rochdale, Greater Manchester Spotland Stadium 10,249 West Wales Raiders Llanelli, Wales Stebonheath Park 3,700 Workington Town Workington, Cumbria Zebra Claims Stadium 10,000 *capacity for rugby league games may differ from official stadium capacity.
Results Round 1 All the ties in round one were due to be played on 15–16 February but all were postponed. Four due to one or both clubs in the tie being involved in rescheduled Challenge Cup third round ties, the original dates having been affected by Storm Ciara. The remaining match (North Wales Crusaders v Doncaster) was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch caused by Storm Dennis. HomeScoreAwayMatch InformationDate and TimeVenueRefereeAttendance Newcastle Thunder – West Wales Raiders Postponed Kingston Park North Wales Crusaders – Doncaster Postponed Queensway Stadium Coventry Bears – Rochdale Hornets Postponed Butts Park Arena Keighley Cougars – Hunslet Postponed Cougar Park Workington Town – London Skolars Postponed Derwent Park Source:
Round 2 HomeScoreAwayMatch InformationDate and TimeVenueRefereeAttendance London Skolars 16–40 North Wales Crusaders 29 February 2020, 14:30 Allianz Park M. Mannifield 223 Coventry Bears 8–28 Newcastle Thunder 1 March 2020, 15:00 Butts Park Arena K. Moore 384 Doncaster 22–32 Barrow Raiders 1 March 2020, 15:00 Keepmoat Stadium B. Pearson 982 West Wales Raiders 10–50 Hunslet 1 March 2020, 15:00 Stebonheath Park N. Horton 282 Workington Town 24–6 Keighley Cougars 1 March 2020, 15:00 Derwent Park T. Crashley 887 Source:
Round 3 HomeScoreAwayMatch InformationDate and TimeVenueRefereeAttendance Barrow Raiders 50–6 Coventry Bears 8 March 2020, 15:00 Craven Park A. Sweet 1,253 Doncaster 50–10 West Wales Raiders 8 March 2020, 15:00 Keepmoat Stadium N. Bennett 540 Hunslet 29–6 London Skolars 8 March 2020, 15:00 South Leeds Stadium J. Roberts 501 Newcastle Thunder 30–22 Workington Town 8 March 2020, 15:00 Kingston Park M. Mannifield 873 Rochdale Hornets 29–14 Keighley Cougars 8 March 2020, 15:00 Crown Oil Arena L. Staveley 541 Source:
Standings at date of abandonment
References