2017 County Championship Shield
| 2017 County Championship Shield | |
|---|---|
| Countries |
 England
|
| Date | 6 May 2017 - 28 May 2017 |
| Champions | Oxfordshire (1st title) |
| Runners-up | Sussex |
| Matches played | 9 |
| Tries scored | 51 (average 5.667 per match) |
| Top point scorer |
 Carles Casanova (Sussex) Ed Phillips (Oxfordshire)23 points |
| Top try scorer |
Bradley Burr (Essex) 3 tries |
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The 2017 County Championship Shield, also known as Bill Beaumont Division Three, was the 13th version of the annual English rugby union County Championship, organised by the RFU for the tier 3 English counties. Each county drew its players from rugby union clubs from the fifth tier and below of the English rugby union league system. Due to changes to the competition across the board, the Shield competition was reduced to eight teams (see the section below for more detail on this), divided into two pools (north and south) with the pool winners meeting in the final to be held at Twickenham Stadium. New teams to the division include Middlesex, who returned to the Shield competition after missing the previous year, and Sussex who last took part in 2013. The reigning champions, Hampshire, were one of the promoted counties who were playing in tier 2 in 2017.
At the end of the pool stage Oxfordshire and Sussex topped both of their groups to qualify for the final. This was not without some controversy as Oxfordshire managed to make the final despite only playing 2 of their 3 group games. With pool 1 on a knife edge going into the final game, Oxfordshire's opponents, Notts, Lincs & Derbyshire, were unable to field a front row and the game was awarded to Oxfordshire and 5 points. By gaining the extra bonus point, Oxfordshire edged out group rivals, Buckinghamshire and Essex, who both had a superior for and against records. Having said all this had Notts, Lincs & Derbyshire played it was probably likely that Oxfordshire would have won by a bonus point anyway. At the Twickenham final an exciting game finished 29-29 after 80 minutes, with Oxfordshire crowned Shield champions for the first time in the county's history by virtue of scoring more tries (5) than Sussex (4).
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