2010–11 Premiership Rugby

2010–11 Aviva Premiership
Countries	England
Date	3 September 2010 – 28 May 2011
Champions	Saracens (1st title)
Runners-up	Leicester Tigers
Relegated	Leeds Carnegie
Matches played	135
Attendance	1,740,751 (average 12,894 per match)
Tries scored	507 (average 3.8 per match)
Top point scorer	Jimmy Gopperth (Newcastle) (230 points)
Top try scorer	Alesana Tuilagi (Leicester) (13 tries)
Official website
www.premiershiprugby.com
← 2009–10 2011–12 →

The 2010–11 Aviva Premiership was the 24th season of the top flight English domestic rugby union competition and the first one to be sponsored by Aviva.^[1] The reigning champions entering the season were Leicester Tigers, who had claimed their ninth title after defeating Saracens in the 2010 final. Exeter Chiefs had been promoted as champions from the 2009–10 RFU Championship, their first promotion to the top flight.

Summary[]

Saracens won their first title after defeating Leicester Tigers in the final at Twickenham after having finished second in the regular season table. Leeds Carnege were relegated on the last day of the season. It was the third time that Leeds have been relegated from the top flight since the leagues began and the first time since the 2007–08 Premiership Rugby season.

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

Teams[]

Twelve teams compete in the league – the top eleven teams from the previous season and Exeter Chiefs who were promoted from the 2009–10 RFU Championship to the top flight for the first time. They replaced Worcester Warriors who were relegated after six years in the top flight.

Stadiums and locations[]

Club	Director of Rugby/Head Coach	Captain	Kit Supplier	Stadium	Capacity	City/Area
Bath	Steve Meehan	Luke Watson	Puma	The Recreation Ground	12,200	Bath
Exeter Chiefs	Rob Baxter	Tommy Hayes		Sandy Park	10,744	Exeter
Gloucester	Bryan Redpath	Mike Tindall		Kingsholm Stadium	16,500	Gloucester
Harlequins	Conor O'Shea	Chris Robshaw	KooGa	Twickenham Stoop[a]	14,282	Twickenham, Greater London
Leeds Carnegie	Neil Back	Marco Wentzel	ISC	Headingley Stadium	22,250	Leeds
Leicester Tigers	Richard Cockerill	Geordan Murphy	Cotton Traders	Welford Road	24,000	Leicester
London Irish	Toby Booth	Clarke Dermody		Madejski Stadium[b]	24,250	Reading
London Wasps	Shaun Edwards	Tom Rees	Canterbury	Adams Park[c]	10,516	High Wycombe
Newcastle Falcons	Alan Tait	James Hudson	Cotton Traders	Kingston Park	10,200	Newcastle upon Tyne
Northampton Saints	Jim Mallinder	Dylan Hartley		Franklin's Gardens	13,591	Northampton
Sale Sharks	Mike Brewer	Mark Cueto	Cotton Traders	Edgeley Park[d]	10,852	Stockport, Greater Manchester
Saracens	Brendan Venter	Steve Borthwick	Nike	Vicarage Road[e]	19,920	Watford

Pre-Season[]

The inaugural edition of the Premiership Rugby Sevens Series began on 16 July 2010 at The Stoop, continued on 23 July at Welford Road and 30 July at Franklin's Gardens. This was the first opportunity of the season for any of the teams competing in the Premiership to win a trophy. The finals were held on 6 August 2010 at The Recreation Ground and the Series was won by Saracens.^[2]

Table[]

2010–11 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 (RU)	22	16	1	5	594	403	191	67	29	8	4	78
2	Saracens (CH)	22	18	0	4	484	318	166	35	26	2	2	76
3	Gloucester (SF)	22	14	1	7	528	452	76	58	43	5	4	67
4	Northampton Saints (SF)	22	14	0	8	533	430	103	58	38	6	3	65
5	Bath	22	13	1	8	427	367	60	38	34	5	3	62
6	London Irish	22	11	0	11	523	459	64	47	41	6	4	54
7	Harlequins	22	9	2	11	482	384	98	45	26	4	8	52
8	Exeter Chiefs	22	10	0	12	428	460	-32	32	42	0	5	43[i]
9	London Wasps	22	9	1	12	425	497	-72	36	45	1	4	43
10	Sale Sharks	22	6	1	15	432	618	-186	34	66	1	5	32
11	Newcastle Falcons	22	4	1	17	360	553	-193	27	55	0	5	23
12	Leeds Carnegie (R)	22	4	0	18	315	590	-275	30	62	0	7	23
^ Exeter Chiefs deducted two points and fined £5,000 for naming three overseas players in the squad for their match at Leeds Carnegie.[3] Green background (rows 1 to 4) are play-off places and earns a berth in the 2011–12 Heineken Cup. Blue background (rows 5 & 6) indicates teams outside the play-off places, that earns a berth in the 2011–12 Heineken Cup based on their position in the table. Yellow background (row 7) indicates team outside the play-off places, that earns a berth in the 2011–12 Heineken Cup as a result of winning the 2010–11 European Challenge Cup. Plain background (rows 8 to 11) indicates teams that earn a place in the 2011–12 European Challenge Cup. Red background (row 12) are relegated, as the champion of the Championship (Worcester Warriors) 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

Regular season[]

The fixture list was released on 29 June 2010.^[4]

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[]

Rescheduled Game (Round 10)[]

Round 18[]

Round 19[]

Rescheduled Games (Round 10 & 11)[]

Round 20[]

Rescheduled Game (Round 11)[]

Round 21[]

Rescheduled Game (Round 10)[]

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 28 May 2011.

Bracket[]

	Semi-finals					Final
	1	Leicester Tigers	11
	4	Northampton Saints	3
						1	Leicester Tigers	18
						2	Saracens	22
	2	Saracens	12
	3	Gloucester	10

Semi-Finals[]

---

Final[]

FB 15 Scott Hamilton  74' RW 14 Horacio Agulla OC 13 Matt Smith IC 12 Anthony Allen LW 11 Alesana Tuilagi FH 10 Toby Flood SH 9 Ben Youngs 5 N8 8 Jordan Crane  49'  64' OF 7 Craig Newby (c)  64' BF 6 Tom Croft RL 5 George Skivington LL 4 Steve Mafi  71' TP 3 Martin Castrogiovanni  52' HK 2 George Chuter  69' LP 1 Marcos Ayerza  77' Replacements: HK 16 Rob Hawkins  69' PR 17 Boris Stankovich  77' PR 18 Dan Cole  52' LK 19 Ed Slater  71' N8 20 Thomas Waldrom  49' SH 21 James Grindal FH 22 Jeremy Staunton CE 23 Billy Twelvetrees  74' Coach: Richard Cockerill

FB 15 Alex Goode RW 14 David Strettle OC 13 Chris Wyles IC 12 Brad Barritt LW 11 James Short FH 10 Owen Farrell SH 9 Neil de Kock  49' N8 8 Ernst Joubert  30'  33' OF 7 Jacques Burger BF 6 Kelly Brown RL 5 Mouritz Botha  55' LL 4 Steve Borthwick (c) TP 3 Carlos Nieto  59' HK 2 Schalk Brits LP 1 Matt Stevens  51' Replacements: HK 16 Jamie George PR 17 Rhys Gill  51' PR 18 Petrus du Plessis  59' LK 19 Hugh Vyvyan  55' N8 20 Andy Saull  30'  33' SH 21 Richard Wigglesworth  49' CE 22 Nils Mordt WG 23 Noah Cato Coach: Mark McCall

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	130,382	11,853	12,200	10,800	95%
Exeter Chiefs	11	99,379	9,034	10,522	6,026	84%
Gloucester	11	143,454	13,041	16,241	9,994	79%
Harlequins	11	201,012	18,274	74,212	10,676	87%
Leeds Carnegie	11	63,261	5,751	12,015	4,097	26%
Leicester Tigers	12	252,195	21,016	24,000	17,063	88%
London Irish	11	178,499	16,227	75,112	6,806	47%
London Wasps	11	184,317	16,756	75,112	7,186	74%
Newcastle Falcons	11	57,331	5,212	6,470	4,225	51%
Northampton Saints	11	146,940	13,358	13,498	13,209	98%
Sale Sharks	11	90,710	8,246	16,428	6,026	67%
Saracens	12	125,444	10,454	38,425	6,029	40%

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

• 2010–11 English Premiership at ESPN
• Match Attendance