# 2021 RFL League 1

The 2021 RFL League 1 is a professional rugby league football competition played in the United Kingdom and is the third tier of the sport for Rugby Football League (RFL) affiliated clubs. The sponsors for the league are the bookmakers, Betfred and the league will continue to be known as the Betfred League 1.

## Teams

The 2020 season was declared null and void due to the COVID-19 pandemic as was the 2020 Championship season, there was therefore no teams relegated to League 1 for 2021. Due to restructuring in the Championship and Super League, Newcastle Thunder were promoted to the Championship and with the planned entry of Ottawa Aces to the league deferred until 2022, the number of teams to compete in League 1 for 2021 was reduced to 10.

### Stadiums and locations

| Team | Location | Stadium | Capacity | Coach | Captain | Chairman |
| Barrow Raiders | Barrow-in-Furness | Matt Johnson Prestige Stadium | 6,000 | Paul Crarey | Jarrad Stack | Steve Neale |
| Coventry Bears | Coventry | Butts Park Arena | 4,000 | Rich Squires | Liam Welham | Alan Robinson |
| Doncaster | Doncaster | Keepmoat Stadium | 15,231 | Richard Horne | Brad Foster | Gavin Baldwin |
| Hunslet | Leeds | South Leeds Stadium | 4,000 | Alan Kilshaw | Duane Straugheir | Kenny Sykes |
| Keighley Cougars | Keighley | Cougar Park | 7,800 | Rhys Lovegrove | Kyle Kesik | Michael O'Neill |
| London Skolars | Haringey, London | New River Stadium | 2,000 | Jermaine Coleman | Iliess Macani | Adrian Fraine |
| North Wales Crusaders | Colwyn Bay | Stadiwm Zip World | 5,500 | Anthony Murray | | Ian Edwards |
| Rochdale Hornets | Rochdale | Crown Oil Arena | 10,249 | Matt Calland | Sean Penkywicz | Andrew Mazey |
| West Wales Raiders | Llanelli | Stebonheath Park | 3,700 | Aaron Wood | Morgan Evans | Andrew Thorne |
| Workington Town | Workington | Zebra Claims Stadium | 10,000 | Chris Thorman | Carl Forber | Les Smallwood |

## Fixtures and results

The season consisted of 18 rounds with each of the 10 teams playing each other home and away. Promotion and play-off details together with the fixture list were originally due to be announced early in 2021 but this announcement was delayed after a meeting on 13 January 2021 at which the start of the season was delayed to at least Spring. On 22 January it was announced that the proposed start date for the competition is the weekend of 8–9 May.
Anticipating that the continuing COVID-19 situation may affect the season, the RFL decided that league position would be based from the outset on win percentage (number of wins divided by number of games played) rather than by competition points as is normal in the league. Postponements were allowed if a team had seven or more players unavailable due to COVID-19 related reasons (e.g. having returned a positive test result or required to isolate following contact with an infected person). In the event of a postponement the clubs were to try and find a new date to play the match otherwise it would be cancelled. Golden point extra time was not used during this season except in the play-offs. The fixture list was released on 14 February and the promotion arrangements on 4 March.

## Regular season table

The team finishing top of the league after the regular season was automatically promoted to the Championship for 2022 with the teams finishing 2nd to 6th taking part in a five-team play-off structure culminating in the promotion play-off final, the winner of which would also be promoted to the Championship. Teams had to complete 70% of their league fixtures to qualify for the play-offs.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PP | Pts | PCT | Qualification |
| 1 | Barrow Raiders | 17 | 13 | 1 | 3 | 596 | 275 | 216.7 | 27 | 79.41 | Champions & promoted to Championship |
| 2 | Workington Town | 15 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 471 | 310 | 151.9 | 21 | 70.00 | Advance to qualifying semi-final |
| 3 | North Wales Crusaders | 17 | 11 | 0 | 6 | 539 | 410 | 131.5 | 22 | 64.71 | Advance to qualifying play-off |
| 4 | Keighley Cougars | 18 | 11 | 1 | 6 | 612 | 385 | 159.0 | 23 | 63.89 | Advance to qualifying play-off |
| 5 | Doncaster | 17 | 9 | 3 | 5 | 472 | 392 | 120.4 | 21 | 61.76 | Advance to elimination play-off |
| 6 | Hunslet | 18 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 564 | 435 | 129.7 | 21 | 58.33 | Advance to elimination play-off |
| 7 | Rochdale Hornets | 17 | 8 | 1 | 8 | 505 | 488 | 103.5 | 17 | 50.00 | |
| 8 | Coventry Bears | 17 | 6 | 0 | 11 | 405 | 532 | 76.1 | 12 | 35.29 | |
| 9 | London Skolars | 18 | 3 | 1 | 14 | 372 | 605 | 61.5 | 7 | 19.44 | |
| 10 | West Wales Raiders | 18 | 0 | 1 | 17 | 238 | 942 | 25.3 | 1 | 2.78 | |

## Play-offs

The play-off structure and dates were confirmed on 20 August and used the same five-team play-off structure used in 2019. Matches were played on four consecutive weekends commencing 17 September.

### Team bracket

| Qualifying play-off | Qualifying play-off | Qualifying play-off | Qualifying semi-final | Qualifying semi-final | Qualifying semi-final | Preliminary final | Preliminary final | Promotion play-off final | Promotion play-off final |
| | | | 2 | Workington Town | 18 | | | Workington Town | 36 |
| | | | | Keighley Cougars | 16 | | | Doncaster | 12 |
| 3 | North Wales Crusaders | 14 | | | | Keighley Cougars | 26 | | |
| 4 | Keighley Cougars | 28 | Elimination semi-final | Elimination semi-final | Elimination semi-final | Doncaster | 28 | | |
| | | | | North Wales Crusaders | 34 | | | | |
| 5 | Doncaster | 31 | | Doncaster | 48 | | | | |
| 6 | Hunslet | 10 | | | | | | | |

## Awards

The end of year awards for the 2021 League 1 season were announced on 29 September 2021.
| Award | Winner |
| Betfred League 1 Player of the Year | Rob Massam (North Wales Crusaders) |
| Betfred League 1 Young Player of the Year | Phoenix Laulu-Togaga'e (Keighley Cougars) |
| Betfred League 1 Coach of the Year | Anthony Murray (North Wales Crusaders) |
| Betfred League 1 Club of the Year | Barrow Raiders |