2015 RFL Championship
The 2015 Rugby Football League Championship, known as the Kingstone Press Championship for sponsorship reasons, was a professional rugby league football competition played in the UK, one tier below the Super League.
The 2015 Championship featured twelve teams, who played each other twice in the regular season, once at home and once away, totaling 22 games. The 2015 season also saw for the first time the Summer Bash Weekend, which was played at Bloomfield Road, Blackpool and created an additional round of fixtures. After 23 rounds in both the Championship and the Super League, the two divisions of twelve were split into the Rugby League Super 8s.
Leigh Centurions were the league leaders after 23 rounds and were thus deemed Champions for the 2015 season, while Hunslet Hawks and Doncaster were relegated following the culmination of the Super 8s.
Teams
The competition featured 12 teams, as opposed to the 14 seen in the previous year. The teams consisted of nine of the 14 teams from 2014, the Play-off winner of the 2014 Championship 1 season, which was Hunslet Hawks, and the two sides relegated from 2014 Super League, Bradford Bulls and London Broncos. Keighley Cougars, North Wales Crusaders, Rochdale Hornets, Swinton Lions, and Barrow Raiders who finished in the bottom five in 2015 were relegated into League One for 2015.| Team & Current Season | Stadium | Capacity | 2015 Average Crowd | Location | |
| Batley Bulldogs | loverugbyleague.com Stadium | 6,000 | 1,605 | Batley, West Yorkshire | |
| Bradford Bulls | Odsal Stadium | 27,000 | 4,360 | Bradford, West Yorkshire | |
| Dewsbury Rams | Tetley's Stadium | 5,100 | 1,689 | Dewsbury, West Yorkshire | |
| Doncaster | Keepmoat Stadium | 15,231 | 1,595 | Doncaster, South Yorkshire | |
| Featherstone Rovers | Bigfellas Stadium | 6,750 | 2,277 | Featherstone, West Yorkshire | |
| Halifax | The Shay Stadium | 6,561 | 2,151 | Halifax, West Yorkshire | |
| Hunslet Hawks | South Leeds Stadium | 4,000 | 1,437 | Leeds, West Yorkshire | |
| Leigh Centurions | Leigh Sports Village | 12,700 | 3,177 | Leigh, Greater Manchester | |
| London Broncos | The Hive Stadium | 5,176 | 1,381 | Canons Park, London | |
| Sheffield Eagles | Owlerton Stadium | 4,000 | 1,640 | Sheffield, South Yorkshire | |
| Whitehaven | Recreation Ground | 7,500 | 1,527 | Whitehaven, Cumbria | |
| Workington Town | Derwent Park | 10,000 | 1,448 | Workington, Cumbria |
Season standings
The regular league season saw the 12 teams play each other twice over 24 matches. The top four teams at the end of the regular season qualified for "The Qualifiers", while the other eight teams contested the "Championship Shield".The Qualifiers Super 8's saw the bottom 4 teams from Super League table join the top 4 teams from the Championship. The points totals are reset to 0 and each team plays 7 games each, playing every other team once. After 7 games each the teams finishing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd will gain qualification to the 2016 Super League season. The teams finishing 4th and 5th will play in the "Million Pound Game" at the home of the 4th place team which will earn the winner a place in the 2016 Super League; the loser, along with teams finishing 6th, 7th and 8th, will be relegated to the Championship.
- Therefore, Wakefield are the final team to secure a spot in Super League XXI.
- Championship Shield
The two teams finishing at the bottom of this Super 8s group were relegated to the League 1 2016 season, and replaced by the two 2015 League One promoted sides.
| Position | Club | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Pts for | Pts agst | Points |
| 1 | Featherstone Rovers | 30 | 19 | 0 | 11 | 809 | 701 | 38 |
| 2 | Dewsbury Rams | 30 | 17 | 1 | 12 | 686 | 624 | 35 |
| 3 | London Broncos | 30 | 15 | 0 | 15 | 756 | 674 | 30 |
| 4 | Workington Town | 30 | 11 | 1 | 18 | 587 | 782 | 23 |
| 5 | Batley Bulldogs | 30 | 10 | 0 | 20 | 645 | 707 | 20 |
| 6 | Whitehaven | 30 | 10 | 0 | 20 | 618 | 921 | 20 |
| 7 | Hunslet Hawks | 30 | 8 | 0 | 22 | 518 | 957 | 16 |
| 8 | Doncaster | 30 | 2 | 0 | 28 | 401 | 1128 | 4 |
Qualified for the semi-final
Relegated to League 1
| Teams qualifying for the Championship Shield 2015 Semi-Finals. | |
| Teams relegated to 2016 League One. |