2015–16 National League 2 North

2015–16 National League 2 North
Countries	England
Date	5 September 2015 – 30 April 2016
Attendance	41,769 (average 263 per match)
Highest attendance	1,050 Harrogate at home to Otley on 5 September 2015
Lowest attendance	50 (x2) South Leicester at home to Sedgley Park on 12 September 2015 & Caldy on 10 October 2015
Top point scorer	Lewis Minikin Harrogate 185 points
Top try scorer	Nicholas Royle Caldy 17 tries
← 2014–15 2016–17 →

The 2015–16 National League 2 North is the seventh season 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 Macclesfield and Tynedale (both relegated from National League 1), Sale and Sandal (both promoted from National League 3 North) and South Leicester (promoted from 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]

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 2016–17 National League 1 and the runners-up play the second-placed team in the 2015–16 National League 2 South with the winner being promoted. The last three teams are relegated to either National League 3 Midlands or 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 2014–15 National League 2 North season; Macclesfield and Tynedale were relegated from the 2014–15 National League 1, Sale (champions) and Sandal (play-offs) were promoted from National League 3 North while South Leicester (champions) were promoted from National League 3 Midlands.

Team	Stadium	Capacity	City/Area	Previous Season
Broadstreet	Ivor Preece Field	250 (seated)	Coventry, West Midlands	7th
Caldy	Paton Field	4,000	Thurstaston, Wirral, Merseyside	6th
Chester	Hare Lane		Chester, Cheshire	5th
Harrogate	Rudding Lane		Harrogate, North Yorkshire	4th
Huddersfield	Lockwood Park	1,500	Huddersfield, West Yorkshire	9th
Leicester Lions	Westleigh Park	2,000	Blaby, Leicestershire	11th
Luctonians	Mortimer Park	300 (seated)	Kingsland, Herefordshire	13th
Macclesfield	Priory Park		Macclesfield, Cheshire	Relegated from 2014–15 National League 1 (16th)
Otley	Cross Green	5,000	Otley, Leeds, West Yorkshire	8th
Preston Grasshoppers	Lightfoot Green	5,000	Preston, Lancashire	12th
Sale	Heywood Road	5,400	Sale, Greater Manchester	Promoted from National League 3 North (1st)
Sandal	Milnthorpe Green		Sandal Magna, Wakefield, West Yorkshire	promoted from National League 3 North via the play-off
Sedgley Park	Park Lane	3,000	Whitefield, Bury, Greater Manchester	3rd
South Leicester	Welford Road Ground		Leicester, Leicestershire	promoted from National League 3 Midlands (1st)
Stourbridge	Stourton Park	3,500 (499 seats)	Stourbridge, West Midlands	10th
Tynedale	Tynedale Park[a 1]	400 (seated)	Corbridge, Northumberland	Relegated from National League 1 (15th)

League table

2015–16 National League 2 North Table
	Club	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points For	Points Against	Points Difference	Try Bonus	Losing Bonus	Points
1	Macclesfield	19	16	0	3	625	337	288	15	1	80
2	Sedgley Park	18	13	0	5	519	341	178	10	4	66
3	Stourbridge	22	13	1	8	465	355	110	5	7	66
4	Leicester Lions	21	13	1	7	378	334	44	3	4	61
5	Caldy	21	11	2	8	456	378	78	5	7	60
6	Otley	20	11	0	9	392	397	-5	5	4	53
7	Harrogate	19	10	0	9	386	377	9	5	4	49
8	Preston Grasshoppers	19	9	3	7	382	352	30	4	3	49
9	Sandal	21	10	0	11	344	396	-52	2	6	48
10	Chester	21	9	0	12	416	416	0	5	6	47
11	Sale	20	8	1	11	414	512	-98	4	5	43
12	Tynedale	20	8	0	12	401	495	-94	5	5	42
13	South Leicester	19	7	1	11	428	519	-91	7	3	40
14	Broadstreet	21	6	0	15	395	517	-122	2	6	32
15	Luctonians	18	6	1	11	328	455	-127	4	2	32
16	Huddersfield	21	5	0	16	336	484	-148	1	6	27
If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order: Number of matches won Difference between points for and against Total number of points for Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled
Green background is the promotion place. Blue background is the play-off place. Pink background are relegation places. Updated: 13 February 2016 Source: "National League 2 North". NCA Rugby.

Fixtures

Round 1

^[11]

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Round 2

^[13]

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Round 3

^[14]

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Round 4

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Round 5

^[16]

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Round 6

^[17]

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Round 7

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Round 8

^[19]

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Round 9

^[20]

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Round 10

^[21]

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Round 11

^[22]

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Round 12

^[23]

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Round 13

• Postponed due to severe weather and flooding. Game rescheduled to 27 February 2016.^[24]

• Postponed due to severe weather causing flooding. Game rescheduled to 27 February 2016.^[25]

^[26]

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Round 14

• Postponed due to waterlogged pitch. Game rescheduled to 27 February 2016.^[27]

• Postponed due to waterlogged pitch. Game rescheduled to 27 February 2016.^[28]

^[29]

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Round 15

^[30]

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Round 16

• Postponed due to pitch being deemed unsuitable to play due to heavy rain. Game rescheduled to 12 March 2016.^[31]

^[32]

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Round 17

• Postponed due to waterlogged pitch caused by heavy rain. Game to be rescheduled for 12 March 2016.^[33]

^[34]

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Round 18

• Postponed due to waterlogged pitch. Game to be rescheduled for 12 March 2016.^[35]

• Postponed due to frozen pitch. Game to be rescheduled for 12 March 2016.^[36]

• Postponed due to bad weather. Game to be rescheduled for 12 March 2016.^[37]

• Postponed due to frozen pitch. Game to be rescheduled for 26 March 2016.^[38]

• Postponed due to bad weather. Game to be rescheduled for 26 March 2016.^[39]

^[40]

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Round 19

^[41]

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Round 20

• Postponed due to Sandal being unwilling to play what they considered to be an unsafe pitch caused by recent rain. Game to be rescheduled for 26 March 2016.^[42]

^[43]

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Round 21

• Postponed due to bad weather conditions. Game to be rescheduled for 7 May 2016.^[44]

• Postponed due to waterlogged pitch caused by heavy rain. Game to be rescheduled for 7 May 2016.^[45]

• Postponed due to waterlogged pitch caused by heavy rain. Game to be rescheduled for 26 March 2016.^[46]

• Postponed due to waterlogged pitch caused by heavy rain. Game to be rescheduled for 26 March 2016.^[47]

^[48]

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Round 22

^[49]

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Round 23

^[50]

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Season attendances

Club	Home Games	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest	% Capacity
Broadstreet	11	1,966	179	276	98	N/A
Caldy	11	1,891	172	272	120
Chester	11	4,108	373	890	210	N/A
Harrogate	8	2,870	359	1,050	180	N/A
Huddersfield	10	2,621	262	322	148
Leicester Lions	10	1,204	120	193	89
Luctonians	9	3,142	349	520	220	N/A
Macclesfield	10	2,960	296	452	207	N/A
Otley	9	2,489	277	353	192
Preston Grasshoppers	9	2,844	316	402	281
Sale	11	2,613	238	320	185
Sandal	11	2,507	228	350	100	N/A
Sedgley Park	9	2,066	230	295	175
South Leicester	10	1,140	114	300	50	N/A
Stourbridge	11	3,550	323	460	170
Tynedale	10	3,798	380	584	210

^[51]

Individual statistics

• Note: if players are tied on tries or points the player with the lowest number of appearances comes first. Also 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).

Top points scorers Rank Player Team Appearances Points 1 Lewis Minikin Harrogate 185 2 SeanTaylor Preston Grasshoppers 183 3 Lewis Barker Macclesfield 176 4 Stephen Collins Sedgley Park 175 5 Liam McGovern Sale 171 6 Ashley Smith Tynedale 154 7 Chris Bell Huddersfield 150 [48][52]

Top try scorers Rank Player Team Appearances Tries 1 Nicholas Royle Caldy 17 2 Jamie Harrison Sedgley Park 14 3 Elliot Brierley Macclesfield 13 4 David Marwick Macclesfield 13 5 Ryan Parkinson Macclesfield 11 6 Calum Gunn South Leicester 11 7 Lewis Minikin Harrogate 11 [48][53]

See also

• English rugby union system
• Rugby union in England

References

External links

• NCA Rugby

National League 2 North 2015–16 teams Broadstreet Caldy Chester Harrogate Huddersfield Leicester Lions Luctonians Macclesfield Otley Preston Grasshoppers Sale Sandal Sedgley Park South Leicester Stourbridge Tynedale Former clubs incomplete Ampthill Aspatria Barkers Butts Bedford Athletic Birkenhead Park Birmingham & Solihull Blaydon Bradford & Bingley Bromsgrove Broughton Park Cleckheaton Darlington Darlington Mowden Park Derby Doncaster Dudley Kingswinford Durham City Fylde Halifax Hereford Hinckley Hull Hull Ionians Kendal Lichfield Liverpool St Helens Longton Loughborough Students Manchester Morley New Brighton Northern Nuneaton Orrell Rotherham Roundhay Rugby Lions Scunthorpe Sheffield Sheffield Tigers Solihull Stockport Stoke-on-Trent Towcestrians Vale of Lune Walsall Waterloo West Hartlepool Westoe Wharfedale Whitchurch Winnington Park Worcester Seasons Area League North 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 National Division Four 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 National Division Four North 1996–97 National Division Two North 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 National Division Three North 2000-01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 National League Two North 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16

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