2009–10 Premiership Rugby

2009–10 Guinness Premiership
Countries	England
Date	4 September 2009 – 29 May 2010
Champions	Leicester Tigers (9th title)
Runners-up	Saracens
Relegated	Worcester Warriors
Matches played	135
Attendance	1,900,177 (average 14,075 per match)
Tries scored	427 (average 3.2 per match)
Top point scorer	Jimmy Gopperth (Newcastle) (219 points)
Top try scorer	Chris Ashton (Northampton) (16 tries)
Official website
www.premiershiprugby.com
← 2008–09 2010–11 →

The 2009–10 Guinness Premiership was the 23rd season of the top flight English domestic rugby union competition and the fifth and final one to be sponsored by Guinness. The reigning champions entering the season were Leicester Tigers, who had claimed their eighth title after defeating London Irish in the 2009 final. Leeds Carnege had been promoted as champions from the 2008–09 National Division One at the first attempt.

Summary[]

Leicester Tigers won their ninth title after defeating Saracens in the final at Twickenham having also topped the regular season table. Worcester Warriors were relegated on the last day of the season. It was the first time that Worcester have been relegated from the top flight since they first achieved promotion.

As usual, round 1 included the London Double Header at Twickenham, the sixth instance since its inception in 2004.

Teams[]

Twelve teams compete in the league – the top eleven teams from the previous season and Leeds Carnege who were promoted from the 2008–09 National Division One after a top flight absence of one year. They replaced Bristol Bears who were relegated after four years in the top flight.

Stadiums and locations[]

Club	Captain	Kit Supplier	Stadium	Capacity	City/Area
Bath	Michael Claassens	Puma	The Recreation Ground	11,700	Bath
Gloucester	Mike Tindall Gareth Delve		Kingsholm Stadium	16,500	Gloucester
Harlequins	Will Skinner	KooGa	Twickenham Stoop[a]	14,282	Twickenham, Greater London
Leeds Carnegie	Marco Wentzel	ISC	Headingley Stadium	22,250	Leeds
Leicester Tigers	Geordan Murphy	Cotton Traders	Welford Road	24,000	Leicester
London Irish	Bob Casey		Madejski Stadium[b]	24,161	Reading
London Wasps	Tom Rees	Canterbury	Adams Park[c]	10,516	High Wycombe
Newcastle Falcons	Carl Hayman	Cotton Traders	Kingston Park	10,200	Newcastle upon Tyne
Northampton Saints	Dylan Hartley		Franklin's Gardens	13,591	Northampton
Sale Sharks	Dean Schofield	Cotton Traders	Edgeley Park	10,852	Stockport, Greater Manchester
Saracens	Steve Borthwick	KooGa	Vicarage Road[d]	19,920	Watford
Worcester Warriors	Pat Sanderson	Kukri	Sixways Stadium	12,068	Worcester

Table[]

2009–10 Premiership Rugby Table view talk
	Club	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points for	Points against	Points diff	Tries for	Tries against	Try bonus	Losing bonus	Points
1	Leicester Tigers (CH)	22	15	1	6	541	325	216	46	18	7	4	73
2	Northampton Saints (SF)	22	16	0	6	472	322	150	44	26	2	5	71
3	Saracens (RU)	22	15	1	6	480	367	113	39	22	2	5	69
4	Bath (SF)	22	12	2	8	450	366	84	49	33	5	4	61
5	London Wasps	22	13	0	9	394	399	−5	35	31	2	3	57
6	London Irish	22	10	3	9	469	384	85	42	33	3	3	52
7	Gloucester	22	10	1	11	470	457	13	46	42	2	4	48
8	Harlequins	22	9	2	11	420	484	−64	42	46	3	3	46
9	Newcastle Falcons	22	6	4	12	319	431	−112	20	41	1	4	37
10	Leeds Carnegie	22	7	1	14	283	493	−210	17	48	0	6	36
11	Sale Sharks	22	6	1	15	333	495	−162	24	51	0	6	32
12	Worcester Warriors (R)	22	3	4	15	312	420	−108	23	36	0	8	28
Green background (rows 1 to 4) are play-off places and earns a berth in the 2010–11 Heineken Cup. Blue background (rows 5 & 6) indicates teams outside the play-off places, that earns a berth in the 2010–11 Heineken Cup based on their position in the table. Plain background (rows 7 to 11) indicates teams that earn a place in the 2010–11 European Challenge Cup. Red background (row 12) are relegated, as the champion of the Championship (Exeter Chiefs) are eligible for promotion . (CH) Champions. (RU) Runners-up. (SF) Losing semi-finalists. (R) Relegated Starting table — source: Premiership Rugby
Tiebreakers for teams tied on points: 1) Number of matches won; 2) Difference between points for and against; 3) Total number of points for; 4) Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams; 5) Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled

Results[]

Round 1[]

Round 2[]

Round 3[]

Round 4[]

Round 5[]

Round 6[]

Round 7[]

Round 8[]

Round 9[]

Round 10[]

Round 11[]

Round 12[]

Round 13[]

Round 14[]

Round 15[]

Round 16[]

Round 17[]

Rearranged fixture[]

Round 18[]

Rearranged fixture[]

Round 19[]

Rearranged fixtures[]

Round 20[]

Rearranged fixture[]

Round 21[]

Round 22[]

Play-offs[]

As in previous seasons, the top four teams in the Premiership table, following the conclusion of the regular season, contest the play-off semi-finals in a 1st vs 4th and 2nd vs 3rd format, with the higher ranking team having home advantage. The two winners of the semi-finals then meet in the Premiership Final at Twickenham on 29 May 2010.

Bracket[]

	Semi-finals					Final
	1	Northampton Saints	19
	4	Saracens	21
						4	Saracens	27
						2	Leicester Tigers	33
	2	Leicester Tigers	15
	3	Bath	6

Semi-Finals[]

---

Final[]

FB 15 Geordan Murphy (c) RW 14 Scott Hamilton OC 13 Matt Smith  72' IC 12 Anthony Allen LW 11 Alesana Tuilagi  73' FH 10 Toby Flood SH 9 Ben Youngs N8 8 Jordan Crane OF 7 Lewis Moody  67' BF 6 Tom Croft RL 5 Geoff Parling LL 4 Louis Deacon TP 3 Martin Castrogiovanni  51' HK 2 George Chuter LP 1 Marcos Ayerza  52' 61' Replacements: HK 16 Joe Duffey PR 17 Boris Stankovich  52' 61' PR 18 Dan Cole  51' FL 19 Craig Newby  67' FL 20 Ben Woods SH 21 James Grindal FH 22 Jeremy Staunton  73' CE 23 Dan Hipkiss  72' Coach: Richard Cockerill

FB 15 Alex Goode RW 14 Michael Tagicakibau  58' OC 13 Adam Powell IC 12 Brad Barritt LW 11 Chris Wyles FH 10 Glen Jackson SH 9 Neil de Kock  64' N8 8 Ernst Joubert OF 7 Andy Saull  64' BF 6 Jacques Burger RL 5 Hugh Vyvyan LL 4 Steve Borthwick (c)  44' TP 3 Petrus du Plessis HK 2 Schalk Brits LP 1 Matías Agüero  51' Replacements: HK 16 Fabio Ongaro PR 17 Rhys Gill  51' PR 18 Richard Skuse LK 19 Mouritz Botha  44' FL 20 Justin Melck  64' SH 21 Justin Marshall  64' CE 22 Derick Hougaard WG 23 Kameli Ratuvou  58' Coach: Brendan Venter

Leading scorers[]

Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WR nationality.

Season attendances[]

By club[]

Club	Home Games	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest	% Capacity
Bath	11	128,215	11,656	11,700	11,300	99%
Gloucester	11	138,445	12,586	16,500	10,548	76%
Harlequins	11	190,701	17,336	76,716	9,209	81%
Leeds Carnegie	11	66,501	6,046	10,146	4,031	27%
Leicester Tigers	12	268,647	22,387	24,000	17,974	93%
London Irish	11	147,334	13,394	21,535	8,561	55%
London Wasps	11	204,775	18,616	67,684	7,173	81%
Newcastle Falcons	11	66,959	6,087	8,766	4,275	60%
Northampton Saints	12	144,346	13,122	13,541	12,073	96%
Sale Sharks	11	83,704	7,609	9,336	6,924	70%
Saracens	11	263,013	23,910	67,684	7,101	50%
Worcester Warriors	11	115,937	10,540	12,024	9,510	87%

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

• Official site
• Match Attendance Figures^{[permanent dead link]}