2000–01 National Division Three South

2000–01 National Division Three South
Countries	England
Champions	Plymouth
Runners-up	Launceston (not promoted)
Relegated	Cheltenham, Basingstoke, Weston-super-Mare, Reading
Attendance	64,715 (average 573 per match)[a 1]
Highest attendance	3,000 Plymouth Albion v Launceston 31 March 2001
Lowest attendance	100 Tabard v Reading 25 November 2000
Top point scorer	Nat Saumi (Penzance & Newlyn) 352 points
Top try scorer	Victor Olonga (Penzance & Newlyn) Dan Ward-Smith (Plymouth Albion) 20 tries

The 2000–01 National Division Three South was the first season (fourteenth overall) of the fourth division (south) of the English domestic rugby union competition using the name National Division Three South. New teams to the division included Reading and Blackheath who were relegated from the 1999–2000 National League 1 while promoted teams included Basingstoke and Launceston, champions of London Division 1 and South West Division 1 respectively.^[1][2][3] The league system was 2 points for a win and 1 point for a draw. The promotion system was changed for this season with a playoff system being introduced. The champions of both National Division Three South and National Division Three North would automatically go up but the runners up of these two divisions would meet each other in a one off match (at the home ground of the side with the superior league record) to see who would claim the third and final promotion place to National Division Two.

Plymouth Albion finished the season as champions by winning an incredible 26 games out of 26 to gain promotion to the 2001–02 National Division Two with runners up Launceston 11 points behind.^[4] It was an excellent season for newly promoted Launceston but they were unable to top it with promotion, losing 40 – 23 away to the 2000-01 National Division Three North runners up Sedgley Park.^[5] It was a great season for south-west based clubs in the division with all four sides occupying the top five league places and the twelve derby matches between the sides had over 21,000 spectators attending in total. At the other end of the table, Cheltenham, Basingstoke, Weston-super-Mare and Reading were the sides to be relegated with all sides being fairly competitive across the course of the season but not having quite enough to keep safe.^[4] Cheltenham and Weston-super-Mare would drop to the South West Division 1 for the following season while Basingstoke would make an instant return to London Division 1.^[6][7]

Team	Stadium	Capacity	City/Area
Barking	Goresbrook	1,000	Becontree, Dagenham, London
Basingstoke	Down Grange	2,500 (250 seats)	Basingstoke, Hampshire
Blackheath	Rectory Field	6,000	Blackheath, London
Cheltenham	Prince of Wales Stadium	480	Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
Clifton	Station Road	2,500 (400 seats)	Clifton, Bristol
Launceston	Polson Bridge	3,000	Launceston, Cornwall
North Walsham	Norwich Road	1,200	Scottow, North Walsham, Norfolk
Penzance & Newlyn	Mennaye Field	3,500	Penzance, Cornwall
Plymouth Albion	Beacon Park	3,500	Plymouth, Devon
Reading	Holme Park		Sonning, Reading, Berkshire
Redruth	The Recreation Ground	3,500 (580 seats)	Redruth, Cornwall
Tabard	Cobden Hill		Radlett, Hertfordshire
Westcombe Park	Goddington Dene	3,200	Orpington, London
Weston-super-Mare	Recreation Ground	3,000	Weston-super-Mare, Somerset

2000–01 National Division Three South table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Plymouth Albion (C)	26	26	0	0	910	240	+670	52
2	Launceston	26	20	1	5	777	396	+381	41
3	Penzance & Newlyn	26	18	2	6	823	492	+331	38
4	Barking	26	15	1	10	611	481	+130	31
5	Redruth	26	14	1	11	691	600	+91	29
6	North Walsham	26	12	1	13	550	461	+89	25
7	Westcombe Park	26	12	0	14	552	664	−112	24
8	Clifton	26	10	1	15	509	628	−119	21
9	Blackheath	26	10	0	16	562	641	−79	20
10	Tabard	26	9	2	15	415	721	−306	20
11	Reading (R)	26	9	1	16	465	643	−178	19
12	Weston-super-Mare (R)	26	7	1	18	370	691	−321	15
13	Basingstoke (R)	26	7	1	18	345	685	−340	15
14	Cheltenham (R)	26	7	0	19	492	729	−237	14

Be aware that some of the early season scores from Rugby Statbunker are incorrect (possibly due to an automatic scoring system used on that website) as they are different from those reported in the Telegraph. I have used references from the Telegraph wherever possible which should tie in with the results from the England rugby website.

^[8]

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 23 September 2000.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 23 September 2000.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 23 September 2000.

^[9]

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 4 November 2000.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 4 November 2000.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 3 February 2001.

^[10]

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• Game rescheduled from 9 September 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 9 September 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 9 September 2000.

^[11]

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^[12]

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^[13]

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 4 November 2000.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 17 February 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 21 October 2000.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 17 February 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 3 March 2001.

^[14]

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^[15]

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• Game rescheduled from 21 October 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 16 September 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 16 September 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 21 October 2000.

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^[16]

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^[17]

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^[18]

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^[19]

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 17 February 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 3 February 2001.

^[20]

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^[21]

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 3 February 2001.

^[22]

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 3 February 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 3 February 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 3 February 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 7 April 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 7 April 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 3 March 2001.

^[23]

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^[24]

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^[25]

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 7 April 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 21 April 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 17 February 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 17 February 2001.

^[26]

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^[27]

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• Game rescheduled from 30 December 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 30 December 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 23 December 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 30 December 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 16 September 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 9 December 2000.

^[28]

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• Game rescheduled from 9 December 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 21 October 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 21 October 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 17 February 2001.

• Game rescheduled from 20 January 2001.

^[29]

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^[30]

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• Game rescheduled from 21 October 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 30 December 2000.

^[31]

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 28 April 2001.

^[32]

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 28 April 2001.

^[33]

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• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 21 April 2001.

• Postponed. Game rescheduled to 21 April 2001.

^[34]

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^[35]

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• Game rescheduled from 30 December 2000.

• Game rescheduled from 20 January 2001.

• Game rescheduled from 30 December 2000.

^[36]

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^[37]

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• Game rescheduled from 20 January 2001.

• Game rescheduled from 24 March 2001.

• Game rescheduled from 24 March 2001.

^[38]

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• Game rescheduled from 17 March 2001.

• Game rescheduled from 10 March 2001.

^[39]

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The league runners up of National Division Three South and North would meet in a playoff game for promotion to National Division Two. Sedgley Park were runners-up in the north and because they had a better league record than south runners-up, Launceston, they hosted the play-off match.

^[5]

Club	Home Games	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest	% Capacity
Barking	3[a 2]	750	250	300	200	25%
Basingstoke	5[a 3]	1,150	230	350	200	9%
Blackheath	8[a 4]	2,320	290	600	140	5%
Cheltenham	11[a 5]	2,250	205	250	150	43%
Clifton	4[a 6]	670	168	200	120	7%
Launceston	13	8,715	670	2,000	300	22%
North Walsham	9[a 7]	2,420	269	320	200	22%
Penzance & Newlyn	10[a 8]	11,400	1,140	2,000	800	33%
Plymouth Albion	13	16,650	1,281	3,000	700	37%
Reading	6[a 9]	1,270	212	270	150
Redruth	13	10,150	781	2,000	400	22%
Tabard	7[a 10]	1,350	193	250	100
Westcombe Park	11[a 11]	2,920	265	400	120	8%
Weston-super-Mare	10[a 12]	2,700	270	500	200	9%

• Note that points scorers includes tries as well as conversions, penalties and drop goals.

• English rugby union system
• Rugby union in England

• NCA Rugby Archived 2015-07-01 at the Wayback Machine