It was formed in 2002 as the County Championship Shield (a competition which is now played by tier 3 sides) - changing to Plate by 2010 and then to Bill Beaumont Division 2 by 2017.

[1][2] Division 2 is contested for by second tier teams in the RFU County Championship.

Division 2 is split into two regional groups (north) and (south) with each team playing one or two home games and the top teams in each group meeting in the final to be held at Twickenham Stadium along with other county divisional finals.

Since 2017 promotion and relegation occurs over two years as opposed to one, using a system of accumulative points from pool games to determine who goes up or down.

Currently the top two sides in Division 2 over the two years (one from each regional group) go up to tier 1 while the bottom two sides (again one from each regional group) are relegated to tier 3.