Two Championship clubs have said it is “appalling” and “unfair” that they have been excluded from this season’s Premiership Rugby Cup.

The competition has been rejigged for the 2024-25 season with only 10 of the 12 second-tier sides competing against the 10 Premiership clubs. Cambridge and newly-promoted Chinnor both miss out.

All Championship clubs last season, marking the first time in 18 years that Premiership sides faced lower-tier teams in a cup.

“It’s not great to be honest to have the rug pulled out from under you,” Chinnor director of rugby Nick Easter told BBC Radio Oxford.

A spokesperson for the Rugby Football Union (RFU) told BBC Sport that the format for the Premiership Cup had been agreed by all parties.The pool stages of this season’s competition will have five regional groups of four clubs competing against each other home and away across six rounds.

The first three rounds, starting on the first weekend of November, take place during the Autumn internationals window, with the final three group matches taking place in February during the Six Nations.

The five pool winners and the three best second-placed sides will qualify for the knock-out stages in early March, before the final on the weekend of 15 March.