English Premiership Rugby

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Poster

Established
1987 (38 years old)

First Recorded Event
2010-09-03

Current Season
2024-2025

Sport
Sport Icon

Rugby

Location
England

Gender
Male

TV Rights
US - NBC Sports [2016-2021]

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Upcoming

30 Mar	Leicester Ti	-	Saracens	2:00pm
18 Apr	Newcastle Fa	-	Northampton	6:45pm
19 Apr	Exeter Chief	-	Bath Rugby	2:00pm
19 Apr	Saracens	-	Gloucester	4:30pm
19 Apr	Harlequins	-	Sale Sharks	2:05pm
20 Apr	Bristol Rugb	-	Leicester Ti	2:00pm
25 Apr	Sale Sharks	-	Saracens	6:45pm
26 Apr	Bath Rugby	-	Newcastle Fa	2:00pm
26 Apr	Leicester Ti	-	Harlequins	2:05pm
26 Apr	Northampton	-	Bristol Rugb	4:30pm
Results
29 Mar	Bath Rugby	47 - 28	Harlequins
29 Mar	Gloucester	53 - 28	Bristol Rugb
29 Mar	Exeter Chief	17 - 15	Newcastle Fa
28 Mar	Sale Sharks	27 - 24	Northampton
23 Mar	Bath Rugby	42 - 26	Gloucester
22 Mar	Saracens	12 - 23	Harlequins
22 Mar	Bristol Rugb	52 - 38	Exeter Chief
21 Mar	Newcastle Fa	15 - 39	Sale Sharks
21 Mar	Northampton	0 - 33	Leicester Ti
26 Jan	Sale Sharks	23 - 32	Bath Rugby

Description

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