2017 County Championship Plate

2017 County Championship Plate
Countries	England
Date	6 May 2017 - 28 May 2017
Champions	Leicestershire (1st title)
Runners-up	Hampshire
Matches played	8
Tries scored	83 (average 10.4 per match)
Top point scorer	Callum Dacey (Leicestershire) 40
Top try scorer	Callum Dacey (Leicestershire) 8

The 2017 County Championship Plate, also known as Bill Beaumont Cup Division 2, was the 16th version of the annual English rugby union, County Championship organised by the RFU for the tier 2 English counties. Each county drew its players from rugby union clubs from the third tier and below of the English rugby union league system (typically National League 1, National League 2 North or National League 2 South). The counties were divided into two regional pools (north/south) with four teams in each and the winners of each pool meeting in the final at Twickenham Stadium.

Due to changes to the County Championship format (more detail of this below) four new teams were added to the competition, with Hampshire (winners) and Staffordshire (runners up) coming up due to reaching the final of the 2016 County Championship Shield, while Warwickshire and Cumbria were also promoted by virtue of their performances in the competition during the past two seasons.^[1][2] The changes also meant that there were no teams relegated into the division.

Leicestershire and Hampshire won their respective groups to qualify for the Twickenham final, with Leicestershire being the more impressive with three easy victories. The first half of the final was fairly close with Leicestershire going in 8-0 up, but in the second half they added a further four tries to win their first ever Plate competition by a final score of 39-7.^[3][4] It was a well deserved win for Leicestershire who were by the far the strongest county in the Plate competition this season and it would be no surprise if they are in the top division in a couple of year's time.

Competition format

The competition format was two regional group stages divided into north and south with four teams in each group. This meant that two teams in the pool had two home games, while the other two had just one. The top side in each group went through to the final held at Twickenham Stadium. The RFU plans to switch this around the following year so that teams that played one home game in 2017 will get two during the 2018 competition.

Due to changes to the County Championships implemented for this competition there was no promotion for the plate finalists as there had been in previous seasons. Instead, points will be accumulated over two seasons with the two most successful sides over that period being promoted to the top tier for the 2019 competition.^[1] Typically there was no relegation although teams have dropped out/been invited to join the division.

Participating Counties and ground locations

County Stadium(s) Capacity City/Area Cumbria Bleach Green N/A Egremont, Cumbria Durham County Mayfield Park N/A Hartlepool, County Durham Hampshire Gosport Park Hook's Lane N/A 1,500 Gosport, Hampshire Bedhampton, Havant, Hampshire Leicestershire Ashby Lane Showground Way N/A Lutterworth, Leicestershire Barleythorpe, Oakham, Rutland North Midlands Heathbrook N/A Kingswinford, West Midlands Somerset Old Bath Road 5,000 Bridgwater, Somerset Staffordshire Cooke Fields Trentham Fields N/A N/A Lichfield, Staffordshire Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire Warwickshire Webb Ellis Road 1,000 Rugby, Warwickshire

Egremont (Cumbria) Hartlepool (Durham Bedhampton (Hampshire) Gosport (Hampshire) Lutterworth (Leicestershire) Oakham (Leicestershire) Kingswinford (North Midlands) Bridgwater (Somerset) Lichfield (Staffordshire) Longton (Staffordshire) Rugby (Warwickshire) Locations of the 2017 County Championship Plate county teams

Group stage

Final

^[3]

Individual statistics

• Note that points scorers includes tries as well as conversions, penalties and drop goals. Appearance figures also include coming on as substitutes (unused substitutes not included). Statistics will also include final.

Top points scorers Rank Player County Club Side Appearances Points 1 Callum Dacey Leicestershire Hinckley 4 40 2 Ricky Aley Leicestershire South Leicester 4 33 3 Fraser Wilson Durham County Blaydon 3 30 Pierre-Alex Clarke Hampshire Tottonians 4 30 4 Alex Everett-Bolter Hampshire Bournemouth 4 25 [5][6][7][3]

Top try scorers Rank Player County Club Side Appearances Tries 1 Callum Dacey Leicestershire Hinckley 4 8 2 Fraser Wilson Durham County Blaydon 3 6 3 Alex Everett-Bolter Hampshire Bournemouth 4 5 4 Tom Johnson North Midlands Moseley Oak 1[a 1] 4 Richard Buck Hampshire Tottonians 2 4 Callum Gunn Leicestershire South Leicester 2[a 2] 4 Kemp Price Hampshire University of the West of England 3 4 [5][6][7][3] ↑ Tom Johnson may have also played in North Midlands 20-38 loss to Somerset but press coverage is very poor so it not certain if he played in this game. ↑ Callum Gunn may have also played in Leicestershire's 45-7 win over Staffordshire but press coverage is very poor so it not certain if he played in this game.

Competition records

See also

• English rugby union system
• Rugby union in England

References

External links

• NCA Rugby