2024–25 National League 1

2024–25 National League 1
Countries	England
Date	7 September 2024 – 26 April 2025
Champions	Richmond (4th title)
Runners-up	Rosslyn Park
Relegated	Darlington Mowden Park, Esher[a]
Matches played	182
Attendance	126,272 (average 694 per match)
Highest attendance	2,410 – Plymouth v Rosslyn Park, 22 March 2025
Lowest attendance	140 – Leicester Lions v Richmond, 15 February 2025
Tries scored	1472 (average 8.1 per match)
Top point scorer	297 – Richard Hayes (Rotherham)
Top try scorer	20 – Rhys Henderson (Sedgley Park)

The 2024–25 National League 1 was the 37th season of the third tier of the English domestic rugby union competitions.

Richmond were crowned as champions on 5 April, a win against Rams on the Friday, combined with title challengers Rotherham Titans losing on the Saturday, enough to give them the title with two games still to play and securing promotion to the 2025–26 RFU Championship.^[1] It would be Richmond's fourth league title and fifth promotion from tier 3 (both divisional records). Despite the league title fight being very competitive, with five teams looking possible for promotion at one point, in the end it was fairly comfortable for Richmond who finished 11th points clear of runners up Rosslyn Park.

Darlington Mowden Park were the first side to be relegated on 15 March, losing at home to Bishop's Stortford to go down with four games to go in what was a terrible season for Mowden Park both on and off the pitch. The second relegation spot would go down to the final game, with both Leicester Lions five point victory enough to keep them up 4 points clear of 13th placed Esher. Normally Leicester Lions would also have been relegated but the reorganisation of the 2025–26 RFU Championship from 12 to 14 teams meant that the 12th placed National League 1 side would be exempt from relegation. Darlington Mowden Park would drop down to the 2025–26 National League 2 North, ending a stay of eleven consecutive years at tier 3, while newly promoted Esher would make an instant return to the 2025–26 National League 2 East.

The league consists of fourteen teams, with all the teams playing each other on a home and away basis, to make a total of twenty-six matches each. There is one promotion place, with the champions promoted to the RFU Championship, and typically there are three relegation places to either, National League 2 East, National League 2 North or National League 2 West, depending on the geographical location of the team.^[2]

Earlier in the season it had been indicated that the RFU Championship was due to increase from 12 to 14 teams for 2025–26. This was finally confirmed by the RFU with most of the season completed, and the subsequent league restructuring meant that one team per league level would have a reprieve from relegation meaning that only two teams instead of the normal three would be relegated from National League 1 at the end of 2024–25.^[3]

Team	Ground	Capacity	City/Area	Previous season
Birmingham Moseley	Billesley Common[4]	5,000 (1,300 seats)	Birmingham, West Midlands	5th
Bishop's Stortford	Silver Leys[5]	1,600	Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire	11th
Blackheath	Well Hall	1,650 (550 seats)	Eltham, London	8th
Darlington Mowden Park	The Darlington Arena[6]	25,500	Darlington, County Durham	7th
Dings Crusaders	Shaftesbury Park [7]	2,250 (250 seats)	Frenchay, Bristol	Promoted from National League 2 West (champions)[8]
Esher	Molesey Road	3,500	Hersham, Surrey	Promoted from National League 2 East (champions)[9]
Leicester Lions	Westleigh Park	2,000	Blaby, Leicestershire	12th
Plymouth Albion	The Brickfields[10]	8,500	Plymouth, Devon	4th
Rams	Old Bath Road[11]	2,000 (300 seats)[12]	Sonning, Reading, Berkshire	2nd
Richmond	Athletic Ground[13]	4,500 (1,000 seats)	Richmond, London	6th
Rosslyn Park	The Rock	2,000	Roehampton, London	3rd
Rotherham Titans	Clifton Lane[14]	2,500	Rotherham, South Yorkshire	Promoted from National League 2 North (champions)[15]
Sale FC	Heywood Road[16]	3,387	Sale, Greater Manchester	10th
Sedgley Park	Park Lane[17]	3,000	Whitefield, Bury, Greater Manchester	9th

table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
1	Richmond (C)	26	21	2	3	888	525	+363	19	1	108	Promotion place
2	Rosslyn Park	26	19	0	7	906	675	+231	19	2	97
3	Rotherham Titans	26	19	0	7	803	636	+167	14	4	94
4	Plymouth Albion	26	17	0	9	750	648	+102	17	6	91
5	Rams	26	16	0	10	784	588	+196	20	6	90
6	Blackheath	26	16	0	10	818	619	+199	16	6	86
7	Birmingham Moseley	26	13	1	12	745	628	+117	15	6	75
8	Sale FC	26	13	0	13	655	686	−31	14	6	72
9	Bishop's Stortford	26	12	0	14	727	676	+51	16	6	70
10	Dings Crusaders	26	9	1	16	713	905	−192	17	1	56
11	Sedgley Park	26	9	1	16	677	756	−79	11	5	54
12	Leicester Lions	26	7	0	19	600	734	−134	11	8	47
13	Esher (R)	26	7	0	19	690	1069	−379	14	1	43	Relegation place
14	Darlington Mowden Park (R)	26	1	1	24	468	1079	−611	9	3	18

Fixtures for the season were published by the RFU on 31 May 2025.^[19]

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• Postponed due to unplayable pitch caused by weather conditions (snow, followed by wind and rain). Game to be rescheduled for 30 November 2024.^[31]

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• Game rescheduled from 23 November 2024.

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• Postponed due to waterlogged pitch.^[35] Game to be rescheduled for 1 February 2025.

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• Game abandoned after 65 minutes due to power failure with Sale FC leading 30 – 25.^[37] Initially it was thought that the result would stand but the RFU ruled that the game would be replayed on 21 February 2025.^[38]

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• Postponed due to frozen pitch.^[41] Game to be rescheduled for 1 February 2025.

• Postponed due to frozen pitch.^[42] Game to be rescheduled for 1 February 2025.

• Postponed due to frozen pitch.^[43] Game to be rescheduled for 29 March 2025.

• Postponed due to frozen pitch.^[44] Game to be rescheduled for 1 February 2025.

• Postponed due to frozen pitch.^[45] Game to be rescheduled for 22 February 2025.

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• Postponed due to frozen pitch. Game to be rescheduled for 22 February 2025.^[48]

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• Game rescheduled from 11 January 2025.

• Game rescheduled from 11 January 2025.

• Game rescheduled from 7 December 2024.

• Game rescheduled from 11 January 2025.

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• Game rescheduled from 14 December 2024.

• Game rescheduled from 11 January 2025.

• Game rescheduled from 25 January 2025.

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• Darlington Mowden Park are relegated.

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• Game rescheduled from 11 January 2025.

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• Richmond are champions following Saturday's results.

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• Esher are relegated due to Leicester Lions result versus Bishop's Stortford.

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Club	Home Games	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest	% Capacity
Birmingham Moseley	13	8,794	676	1,111	442	14%
Bishop's Stortford	13	7,514	578	806	432	36%
Blackheath	13	7,092	546	925	305	33%
Darlington Mowden Park	13	7,270	559	950	336	2%
Dings Crusaders	13	7,566	582	742	322	26%
Esher	13	9,265	713	1,032	350	20%
Leicester Lions	13	3,625	279	503	140	14%
Plymouth Albion	13	17,542	1,349	2,410	706	16%
Rams	13	12,859	989	1,829	747	49%
Richmond	13	12,313	947	1,950	603	21%
Rosslyn Park	13	8,207	631	962	330	32%
Rotherham Titans	13	8,993	692	878	525	28%
Sale FC	13	9,484	730	834	634	22%
Sedgley Park	13	5,748	442	1,303	243	15%

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• 2024–25 National League 2 East
• 2024–25 National League 2 North
• 2024–25 National League 2 West

• National Clubs Association for Leagues 1 and 2