2017 County Championship Plate Stadium. Due to changes to the County Championship format (more detail of this below) four new teams were added to the competition, with Hampshire (winners) and Staffordshire (runners up) coming up due to reaching the final of the 2016 County Championship Shield, while Warwickshire and Cumbria were also promoted by virtue of their performances in the competition during the past two seasons. The changes also meant that there were no teams relegated into the division. Leicestershire and Hampshire won their respective groups to qualify for the Twickenham final, with Leicestershire being the more impressive with three easy victories. The first
County Championship (rugby union) the County Championship Plate. The eleven counties which competed for the County Championship Shield were split into three pools from which the winners and the runner-up with the best record met in semi-final matches. In 2017 the competition was given a new structure, with the top tier comprising twelve teams and the second and third tiers having eight teams each. Each tier will have a final each year, but promotion and relegation between tiers will be decided on a two-year basis. From 1984 all Championship finals were played at Twickenham. Cumbria, a 1974 amalgamation of the former counties of Cumberland,