2008–09 National Division One

2008–09 National Division One
Countries	England
Champions	Leeds Carnegie
Runners-up	Exeter Chiefs
Relegated	Esher, Sedgley Park, Newbury, Otley, Manchester
Attendance	414,347 (average 1,737 per match)
Top point scorer	Jamie Lennard (Doncaster Knights) 303 points
Top try scorer	Billy Twelvetrees (Bedford Blues) 18 tries
← 2007–08 2009–10 →

The 2008–09 National Division One was the 22nd full season of rugby union within the second tier of the English league system, currently known as the RFU Championship. Leeds Carnegie joined National Division One, having been relegated from the Guinness Premiership after the 2007–08 season. Otley and Manchester were promoted from National Division Two.

During this season, Leeds Carnegie won a quick promotion back to the Guinness Premiership, whilst five teams were relegated to National League 1 - Esher, Sedgley Park, Newbury, Otley and Manchester. The reason for the large amount of teams being relegated was due to the league being restructured the next season from 16 to 12 teams as the new RFU Championship.

Participating teams

Team	Stadium	Capacity	City/Area
Bedford Blues	Goldington Road	6,000	Bedford, Bedfordshire
Cornish Pirates	Recreation Ground	9,000	Cambourne, Cornwall
Coventry	Butts Park Arena	4,000	Coventry, West Midlands
Doncaster Knights	Castle Park	3,075	Doncaster, South Yorkshire
Esher	Molesey Road	3,000	Hersham, Surrey
Exeter Chiefs	Sandy Park	8,000	Exeter, Devon
Leeds Carnegie	Headingley Stadium	22,250	Leeds, West Yorkshire
London Welsh	Old Deer Park	5,850	Richmond, London
Manchester	Grove Park[n 1]	4,000	Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester
Moseley	Billesley Common	3,000+	Birmingham, West Midlands
Newbury	Monk's Lane	8,000	Newbury, Berkshire
Nottingham	Meadow Lane	19,588	Nottingham, Nottinghamshire
Otley	Cross Green	5,000	Otley, West Yorkshire
Plymouth Albion	The Brickfields	6,500	Plymouth, Devon
Rotherham Titans	Clifton Lane	2,500	Rotherham, South Yorkshire
Sedgley Park	Park Lane	3,000	Whitefield, Greater Manchester

Notes

Table

National Division One 2008–09 Table
	Club	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points for	Points against	Points Diff	Try Bonus (BT)	Losing Bonus (BP)	Points
1	Leeds Carnegie (P)	30	28	0	2	1238	376	862	20	1	133
2	Exeter Chiefs	30	23	2	5	1077	453	624	20	3	119
3	Bedford Blues	30	23	0	7	892	472	420	17	2	111
4	Nottingham	30	22	0	8	973	499	474	16	4	106*
5	Doncaster Knights	30	21	2	7	895	571	324	14	3	105
6	London Welsh	30	19	0	11	788	611	177	11	6	91*
7	Cornish Pirates	30	16	1	13	743	578	165	11	5	82
8	Moseley	30	13	0	17	814	782	32	13	8	73
9	Coventry	30	14	0	16	639	712	-73	11	5	72
10	Rotherham Titans	30	15	1	14	794	775	19	9	3	70*
11	Plymouth Albion	30	13	2	15	607	669	-62	7	3	66
12	Esher (R)	30	12	1	17	676	830	-154	9	2	61
13	Sedgley Park (R)	30	6	0	24	458	1206	-748	6	4	34
14	Newbury (R)	30	4	2	24	419	1047	-628	2	5	27
15	Otley (R)	30	3	1	26	418	1298	-700	3	6	21*
16	Manchester (R)	30	2	0	28	433	1165	-732	4	5	17
* Points deducted for breach of regulations Reference Statbunker.com: Updated 2009-05-09 --- Current English Leagues

Notes

Points were awarded as follows:

• 4 points for a win
• 2 points for a draw
• 0 points for a loss
• 1 bonus point (BP) for losing by 7 points or less
• 1 bonus point (BT) for scoring 4 tries or more in a match

Results

Round 1

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Round 2

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Round 3

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Round 4

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Round 5

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Round 6

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Round 7

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Round 8

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Round 9

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Round 10

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Round 11

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Round 12

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Round 13

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Round 14

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Round 15

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 19 April 2009.

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Round 16

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 2 May 2009.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 28 February 2009.

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Round 17

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Round 18

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Round 19

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 21 March 2009.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 21 March 2009.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 1 April 2009.

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Round 20

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 28 February 2009.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 22 March 2009.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 21 March 2009.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 9 May 2009.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 28 February 2009.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 8 April 2009.

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Round 21

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Round 22

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Round 23

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 18 April 2009.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 18 April 2009.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 21 February 2009.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 19 April 2009.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 15 April 2009.

Round 24

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Round 16 & Round 20 Rescheduled Games

Round 25

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Round 26

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Round 19, 20 & 23 Rescheduled Games

• Game was a double header - league match and EDF National Cup semi final

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Round 27

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Round 19 Rescheduled Game

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Round 28

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Round 20 Rescheduled Game

• Game switched to Headingley as Manchester did not have floodlights

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Round 29

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Round 15 & 23 Rescheduled Games

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Round 30

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Rounds 16, 19 & 20 Rescheduled Games

• Game was cancelled by Otley due the club having 8 players on county duty for Yorkshire. The FDR gave Moseley a 20-0, 5 point win by default.

Total Season Attendances

• Note that there are no attendance figures for Otley's 14-7 win over Sedgley Park on 29 November 2008 and Moseley's 32-24 win over Exeter Chiefs on 21 March 2009 - any help with these games would be very much appreciated. Also, Otley only played 14 home games as their match against Moseley on 9 May 2009 was cancelled.

Club	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest	% Capacity
Bedford Blues	39,406	2,627	3,307	1,933	44%
Cornish Pirates	44,739	2,983	4,913	1,894	33%
Coventry	20,959	1,397	3,638	838	35%
Doncaster Knights	20,520	1,368	2,203	846	44%
Esher	15,682	1,045	1,984	380	35%
Exeter Chiefs	68,984	4,599	7,345	2,899	57%
Leeds Carnegie	48,625	3,242	5,463	2,029	15%
London Welsh	16,035	1,069	1,931	390	18%
Manchester	7,096	473	1,781	283	9%
Moseley	12,502	893	1,124	682	30%
Newbury	8,164	544	878	310	7%
Nottingham	22,391	1,493	2,663	1,088	8%
Otley	11,337	872	2,610	450	17%
Plymouth Albion	51,050	3,403	6,871	1,742	52%
Rotherham Titans	18,727	1,248	2,548	642	50%
Sedgley Park	8,130	542	886	296	18%

Individual Statistics

• Note if players are tied on tries or points the player with the lowest number of appearances will come first. Also note that points scorers includes tries as well as conversions, penalties and drop goals.

Top points scorers^[2]

Player	Team	Appearances	Points
Jamie Lennard	Doncaster Knights	29	303
David Jackson	Nottingham	30	261
Gareth Steenson	Exeter Chiefs	27	228
Neil Hallett	Esher	28	224
James Pritchard	Bedford Blues	20	216
Alberto Di Bernardo	Leeds Carnegie	21	211
Mark Harris	London Welsh	20	180
Rhys Jones	Cornish Pirates	21	178
Tim Taylor	Nottingham	30	176
Michael Whitehead	Rotherham Titans	29	173

Top try scorers^[3]

Player	Team	Appearances	Tries
Billy Twelvetrees	Bedford Blues	29	18
David Jackson	Nottingham	30	18
James Rodwell	Moseley	21	17
Matthew Jess	Exeter Chiefs	18	16
Sean Marsden	Exeter Chiefs	19	16
Jon Feeley	Rotherham Titans	28	16
Douglas Flockhart	Esher	30	16
Paul McKenzie	Exeter Chiefs	16	15
Wes Davies	Doncaster Knights	24	15
Leigh Hinton	Leeds Carnegie	25	15
Errie Claassens	Rotherham Titans	27	15

See also

• English rugby union system

External links

• national1.co.uk

References

RFU Championship 2014–15 Teams Bedford Blues Bristol Cornish Pirates Doncaster Knights Jersey London Scottish Moseley Nottingham Plymouth Albion Rotherham Titans Worcester Warriors Yorkshire Carnegie Former clubs Birmingham-Solihull Blackheath Bracknell Cornish All Blacks Coventry Ealing Trailfinders Esher Exeter Chiefs Fylde Gosforth Harlequins Henley Liverpool St Helens London Irish London Welsh Manchester Morley Newbury Newcastle Falcons Northampton Saints Orrell Otley Richmond Rosslyn Park Rugby Sale Sharks Saracens Sedgley Park Wakefield Waterloo West Hartlepool Seasons National Division Two 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 Premiership Two 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 National Division One 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 Championship 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 Representative team RFU Championship XV

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Rugby union schedule for 2008
Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
H. Cup	Six Nations Championship		Heineken Cup		Mid-Year Tests				H. Cup	End of year Int'ls	H. Cup
Guinness Premiership								Guinness Premiership
Celtic League								Celtic League
Top 14							Top 14
			Shute Shield
					Currie Cup
Sevens											Sevens
			Pacific Rugby Cup		Churchill Cup	Air New Zealand Cup
	Super 14				Pacific Nations Cup	Tri Nations

Rugby union schedule for 2009
Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
H. Cup	Six Nations Championship		Heineken Cup		Mid-Year Tests				H. Cup	End of year Int'ls	H. Cup
				British & Irish Lions Tour
English Premiership								English Premiership
Celtic League								Celtic League
Top 14							Top 14
Top League							Top League
			Shute Shield
						Currie Cup
Sevens											Sevens
		World Cup Sevens	Pacific Rugby Cup		Churchill Cup	Air New Zealand Cup
	Super 14				Pacific Nations Cup	Tri Nations