2016 County Championship Shield

The 2016 County Championship Shield was the 12th 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. The counties were divided into three pools - one pool with four teams, the others with three teams each, with the winner of each group plus the best runner-up going through to the semi-finals, and the winners of those games meeting in the final held at Twickenham Stadium. Due to competition changes for the 2017 season (more on this below) a number of teams in the division would be promoted to tier 2 for the following season, joining the 2015 Shield champions Leicestershire who had already been promoted at the start of this season.

After winning their respective pools and semi-final games, Staffordshire and Hampshire met in the final. In the end it was Hampshire who finished as the champions, defeating Staffordshire, 33–11.