2012–13 Premiership Rugby

2012–13 Aviva Premiership
Countries	England
Date	1 September 2012 – 25 May 2013
Champions	Leicester Tigers (10th title)
Runners-up	Northampton Saints
Relegated	London Welsh
Matches played	135
Attendance	1,684,804 (average 12,480 per match)
Tries scored	542 (average 4 per match)
Top point scorer	Nick Evans (Harlequins) (258 points)[1]
Top try scorer	Tom Varndell (Wasps), Christian Wade (Wasps) (13 tries)[2]
Official website
www.premiershiprugby.com
← 2011–12 2013–14 →

The 2012–13 Aviva Premiership was the 26th season of the top flight English domestic rugby union competition and the third one to be sponsored by Aviva. The reigning champions entering the season were Harlequins, who had claimed their first title after defeating Leicester Tigers in the 2012 final. London Welsh had been promoted as champions from the 2011–12 RFU Championship, their first promotion to the top flight.

Summary[]

Leicester Tigers won their tenth title after defeating Northampton Saints in the final at Twickenham after having finished second in the regular season table. London Welsh were relegated in part for having received a 5 point deduction for fielding a player who did not hold an Effective Registration. It was the first time that London Welsh have been relegated from the top flight since they first achieved promotion.

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

Rule changes[]

For the second consecutive season, significant changes were made to the Premiership's salary cap. Last season, "academy credits" were introduced, giving each team a £30,000 cap credit for each of up to eight home-grown players in the senior squad.^[3] This season, the team cap rose for the first time since the 2008–09 season, when it was increased from £2.2 million to £4 million.^[4] The new cap is £4.26 million before academy credits and up to £4.5 million with credits.^[3] In addition, each team was allowed to sign one player whose salary did not count against the cap.^[3]

Teams[]

Twelve teams compete in the league – the top eleven teams from the previous season and London Welsh who were promoted from the 2011–12 RFU Championship to the top flight for the first time. They replaced Newcastle Falcons who were relegated after fifteen years in the top flight.

Stadiums and locations[]

Club	Director of Rugby/Head Coach	Captain	Kit Supplier	Stadium	Capacity	City/Area
Bath	Gary Gold	Stuart Hooper	Puma	The Recreation Ground	12,300	Bath
Exeter Chiefs	Rob Baxter	Tommy Hayes		Sandy Park	10,744	Exeter
Gloucester	Nigel Davies	Jim Hamilton	KooGa	Kingsholm Stadium	16,500	Gloucester
Harlequins	Conor O'Shea	Chris Robshaw	O'Neills	Twickenham Stoop[a]	14,816	Twickenham, Greater London
Leicester Tigers	Richard Cockerill	Geordan Murphy	Canterbury	Welford Road	24,000	Leicester
London Irish	Brian Smith	Declan Danaher	ISC	Madejski Stadium[b]	24,250	Reading
London Wasps	Dai Young	Hugo Southwell	Kukri Sports	Adams Park[c]	10,516	High Wycombe
London Welsh	Lyn Jones	Jonathan Mills		Kassam Stadium	12,500	Oxford
Northampton Saints	Jim Mallinder	Dylan Hartley		Franklin's Gardens	13,591	Northampton
Sale Sharks	Bryan Redpath	David Seymour	Canterbury	AJ Bell Stadium	12,000	Salford, Greater Manchester
Saracens	Mark McCall	Steve Borthwick	Nike	Allianz Park[d]	10,000[e]	Hendon, Greater London
Worcester Warriors	Richard Hill	Dean Schofield	Cotton Traders	Sixways Stadium	12,068	Worcester

Pre-Season[]

Following a lengthy appeal, London Welsh successfully gained promotion to the Premiership, having contested the Professional Game Boards recommendation to refuse them entry based on the Minimum Standards Criteria.^[6] This meant that Newcastle Falcons were relegated, following their confirmation that they would not appeal the new decision.^[7]

The 2012 edition of the Premiership Rugby Sevens Series began on 13 July 2012 at The Stoop, continued on 20 July at Edgeley Park and 26 July at Kingsholm. 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 3 August 2012 at The Recreation Ground and the Series was won by London Irish.^[8]

Table[]

2012–13 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	Saracens (SF)	22	17	1	4	533	339	194	41	25	5	2	77
2	Leicester Tigers (CH)	22	15	1	6	538	345	193	56	29	7	5	74
3	Harlequins (SF)	22	15	0	7	560	453	107	52	35	5	4	69
4	Northampton Saints (RU)	22	14	0	8	501	433	68	55	36	6	3	65
5	Gloucester	22	12	1	9	515	481	34	40	42	2	8	60
6	Exeter Chiefs	22	12	1	9	542	446	96	51	43	4	5	59
7	Bath	22	10	1	11	452	434	18	44	29	4	7	53
8	London Wasps	22	9	0	13	511	528	-17	47	51	4	8	48
9	London Irish	22	7	1	14	459	601	-142	38	57	2	3	35
10	Sale Sharks	22	7	1	14	377	596	-219	37	53	2	3	35
11	Worcester Warriors	22	5	1	16	422	547	-125	35	59	3	8	33
12	London Welsh (R)	22	5	0	17	412	619	-207	30	67	1	7	23[i]
^ London Welsh were deducted 5 competition points for fielding a player who did not hold an Effective Registration.[9] Green background (rows 1 to 4) are play-off places and earns a berth in the 2013–14 Heineken Cup. Blue background (rows 5 & 6) indicates teams outside the play-off places, that earns a berth in the 2013–14 Heineken Cup based on their position in the table. Plain background (rows 7 to 11) indicates teams that earn a place in the 2013–14 European Challenge Cup. Red background (row 12) are relegated, as the champion of the Championship (Newcastle Falcons) 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[]

Premiership Rugby announced the fixture list on 4 July 2012.^[10] As with previous seasons, Round 1 included the London Double Header at Twickenham.

Fixtures as per Premiership Rugby Match Centre.

Round 1[]

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Round 2[]

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Round 3[]

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Round 4[]

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Round 5[]

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Round 6[]

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Round 7[]

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Round 8[]

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Round 9[]

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Round 10[]

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Round 11[]

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Round 12[]

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Round 13[]

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Round 14[]

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Round 15[]

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Round 16[]

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Round 17[]

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Round 18[]

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Round 19[]

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Round 20[]

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Round 21[]

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Round 22[]

All games in Round 22 kicked off at 15.00 on 4 May 2013, so as to not give any team a potential advantage with regards to knowing how to achieve a play-off berth, Heineken Cup place, or safety from relegation.

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 25 May 2013.

Bracket[]

	Semi-finals					Final
	1	Leicester Tigers	33
	4	Harlequins	16
						1	Leicester Tigers	37
						3	Northampton Saints	17
	2	Saracens	13
	3	Northampton Saints	27

Semi-Finals[]

Final[]

The final was contested at Twickenham on 25 May 2013 between Leicester Tigers and Northampton Saints with Leicester winning 37-17. Northampton captain Dylan Hartley was sent off for using foul and abusive language just before half-time after calling referee Wayne Barnes a "f*****g cheat" . This was the first time a player has ever been red carded in a Premiership Final, as was said by the commentators during the match. ^{[11][12][13][14]}

FB 15 Mathew Tait RW 14 Niall Morris OC 13 Manu Tuilagi IC 12 Anthony Allen LW 11 Vereniki Goneva  75' FH 10 Toby Flood (c)  24' SH 9 Ben Youngs  75' N8 8 Jordan Crane  73' OF 7 Julian Salvi BF 6 Tom Croft RL 5 Geoff Parling LL 4 Graham Kitchener  56' TP 3 Dan Cole  68' HK 2 Tom Youngs  68' LP 1 Logovi'i Mulipola  75' Substitutions: HK 16 Rob Hawkins  68' PR 17 Fraser Balmain  75' PR 18 Martin Castrogiovanni  68' LK 19 Ed Slater  56' FL 20 Steve Mafi  73' SH 21 Sam Harrison  75' FH 22 George Ford  24' WG 23 Matt Smith  75' Coach: Richard Cockerill

FB 15 Ben Foden  68' RW 14 Ken Pisi OC 13 James Wilson IC 12 Luther Burrell LW 11 Jamie Elliott  40' FH 10 Stephen Myler  68' SH 9 Lee Dickson  68' N8 8 Samu Manoa OF 7 Tom Wood BF 6 Phil Dowson  68' RL 5 Christian Day  60' LL 4 Courtney Lawes TP 3 Brian Mujati  57' HK 2 Dylan Hartley (c) 40+1' LP 1 Soane Tonga'uiha  56' Substitutions: HK 16 Mike Haywood  40' PR 17 Alex Waller  56' PR 18 Tom Mercey  57' FL 19 Ben Nutley  68' LK 20 Gerrit-Jan van Velze  60' SH 21 Martin Roberts  68' FH 22 Ryan Lamb  68' FB 23 George Pisi  68' Coach: Jim Mallinder

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	126,681	11,516	12,200	10,438	94%
Exeter Chiefs	11	89,581	8,144	10,744	5,568	76%
Gloucester	11	154,404	14,037	16,121	10,782	85%
Harlequins	11	219,631	19,966	82,000	11,630	94%
Leicester Tigers	12	256,687	21,391	24,000	19,250	89%
London Irish	11	104,181	9,471	19,523	5,828	39%
London Wasps	11	129,644	11,786	63,103	5,232	65%
London Welsh	11	55,990	5,090	10,045	3,150	41%
Northampton Saints	11	140,414	12,765	13,493	11,695	94%
Sale Sharks	11	80,201	7,291	9,783	5,307	61%
Saracens	12	200,871	16,739	63,102	5,472	73%
Worcester Warriors	11	102,450	9,314	12,024	7,847	77%

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

• Official Site
• 2012–13 English Premiership Full Results