English Premiership Rugby - TheSportsDB.com

Name
English Premiership Rugby

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Poster

Established
1987 (36 years old)

First Recorded Event
2010-09-03

Current Season
2022-2023

API Football ID
13

Sport

Rugby

Location
England

Gender
Male

Alternate Names
Premiership Rugby

TV Rights
US - NBC Sports [2016-2021]

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Site
Home / Sport / Rugby / English Premiership Rugby

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Latest Results
27 May 23	Sale Sharks	35 - 25	Saracens	Twickenham
14 May 23	Sale Sharks	21 - 13	Leicester Tiger	AJ Bell Stadium
13 May 23	Saracens	38 - 15	Northampton Sai	Barnet Copthall
06 May 23	Wasps	P - P	Leicester Tiger	Ricoh Arena
06 May 23	Sale Sharks	54 - 12	Newcastle Falco	AJ Bell Stadium
06 May 23	Bristol Rugby	36 - 21	Gloucester	Ashton Gate Stadium
06 May 23	Bath Rugby	P - P	Worcester Warri	The Recreation Groun
06 May 23	London Irish	17 - 14	Exeter Chiefs	Brentford Community
06 May 23	Leicester Tiger	17 - 20	Harlequins	Welford Road
06 May 23	Bath Rugby	61 - 29	Saracens	The Recreation Groun

Description
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Premiership Rugby (officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership due to sponsorship reasons) is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership consists of twelve clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby union system. Premiership clubs qualify for Europe's two main club competitions, the European Rugby Champions Cup and the European Rugby Challenge Cup. The team finishing at the bottom of the Premiership each season is relegated to the second division, the RFU Championship; the winner of the Championship is promoted to the Premiership.

The competition has been played since 1987, and has evolved into the current Premiership system. The current champions are Saracens. The most recently promoted side are London Irish, who returned to the top flight in 2019.

The governing body of rugby union in England, the Rugby Football Union (RFU), long resisted leagues as it was believed that the introduction of leagues would increase 'dirty' play and put pressure on clubs to pay their players (thereby contravening the amateur ethos). Instead, clubs arranged their own friendlies and had traditional games. The only organised tournaments were the County Cups and County Championship — the former played by clubs and the latter by County representative teams. The Daily Telegraph and a few local newspapers — such as the Yorkshire Post — compiled 'pennants' based on teams' performances, but as the strength of fixture lists varied, it was at best an estimate of a team's performance throughout a season.

The league turned professional for the 1996/97 season when the first winners were London Wasps, joining Bath and Leicester as the only champions in the league's first decade. Clubs like Saracens, Newcastle and Northampton were able to attract wealthy benefactors, but the professional era also had its casualties, as clubs like West Hartlepool, Richmond and London Scottish were forced into administration when their backers pulled out.

Seasons