Countries England Runners-up Lancashire Matches played 13 | Champions Cornwall (4th title) Relegated Kent, Durham | |
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Date 9 May 2015 - 31 May 2015 | ||
The 2015 Bill Beaumont Cup, also known as Bill Beaumont Cup Division One, was the 115th version of the annual, English rugby union, County Championship organized by the RFU for the top tier 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 South or National League 2 North). The counties were divided into two regional pools with the winners of each pool meeting in the final held at Twickenham Stadium. New counties to the competition were the two finalists from the 2014 County Championship Plate – Kent (winners) and Durham (runners-up) who replaced North Midlands and Northumberland. Lancashire were the defending champions.
Contents
At the end of the group stage, Lancashire won the northern division with relative ease to book their place in the final for the seventh successive year while Cornwall joined them, squeezing through by defeating Hertfordshire in the last game of the southern group having trailed 18 - 6 at half time. Both Durham and Kent made an instant return to the second division after being relegated by coming bottom of their respective groups. The 2015 final was a repeat of the previous two seasons with Cornwall this time turning the tables on holders Lancashire and winning their first county title since 1999 in a 18 - 13 victory. Cornish All Black scrum half Matthew Shepherd was man of the match with two tries and also finished as the competitions top scorer.
Competition format
The competition format was two regional group stages divided into north and south, with each team playing each other once. 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 on May 31 2015. The bottom side in each group was relegated to the second tier of the county championships for the following season, with the finalists from that division replacing them.