Premiership Rugby

Premiership Rugby

Current season, competition or edition: 2021–22 Premiership Rugby
Sport	Rugby union
Founded	1987; 34 years ago (1987)
Administrator	RFU
CEO	Simon Massie-Taylor
No. of teams	13
Country	England
Most recent champion(s)	Harlequins (2nd title) (2020–21)
Most titles	Leicester Tigers (10 titles)
TV partner(s)	BT Sport
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	RFU Championship[a]
Domestic cup(s)	Premiership Rugby Cup
International cup(s)	European Rugby Champions Cup European Rugby Challenge Cup
Official website	PremiershipRugby.com

Premiership Rugby (officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons)^[2] is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership consists of thirteen clubs, rising to fourteen in 2022, 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 winner of the second division, the RFU Championship is promoted to the Premiership and until 2020, the team finishing at the bottom of the Premiership each season was relegated to the Championship. The competition is regarded as one of the three top-level professional leagues in the Northern and Western Hemispheres, along with the Top 14 in France, and the cross-border United Rugby Championship for teams from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Italy and South Africa.

The competition has been played since 1987, and has evolved into the current Premiership system. The current champions are Harlequins. The most recently promoted side are Saracens, who returned to the top flight in 2021.

History[]

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Beginnings: English domestic rugby union until 1972[]

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 fixtures 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.

1972–1995: Leagues and cups[]

In 1972 the RFU sanctioned a national knock-out cup – the RFU Club Competition, the predecessor to the Anglo-Welsh Cup – followed first by regional merit tables and then, in the mid-1980s, by national merit tables. One of the casualties of the move to competitive leagues was the loss of some traditional games as the new fixture lists didn't allow time for all of them.

The league system has evolved since its start in 1987 when the Courage Leagues were formed – a league pyramid with roughly 1,000 clubs playing in 108 leagues, each with promotion and relegation.

In the first season, clubs were expected to arrange the fixtures on mutually convenient dates. The clubs involved were Bath, Bristol, Coventry, Gloucester, Harlequins, Leicester, Moseley, Nottingham, Orrell, Sale, Wasps and Waterloo. That first season was an unqualified success, with clubs in the upper echelons of the national leagues reporting increased crowds, interest from both local backers and national companies, and higher skill levels among players exposed to regular competition. The fears that leagues would lead to greater violence on the field proved largely unfounded.

By the next season, the RFU allocated fixed Saturdays to the league season, removing the clubs' responsibility for scheduling matches. There was no home and away structure to the leagues in those early seasons, as sides played one another only once.

Initially two teams, Bath and Leicester, proved to be head and shoulders above the rest in the Courage League, and between them dominated the top of the table.

In 1994 the league structure expanded to include a full rota of home and away matches for the first time. The 1994–95 season was the first to be shown live on Sky Sports, a relationship which continued until the 2013–14 season when BT Sport acquired the exclusive rights.^[3]

1996: The dawn of professional rugby union[]

The league turned professional for the 1996–97 season when the first winners were 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.^[4]

2000–2002: Premiership, Championship and playoffs[]

The start of the 2000–01 season brought with it a re-vamping of the season structure. In 2000–2001 an eight-team playoff (the Championship) was introduced. However, the team finishing top of the table at the end of the regular season was still considered English champions ("Premiership title").

Halfway through the 2001–02 season, with Leicester odds-on to win their fourth title in succession, it was controversially decided that the winners of the eight-team playoff would be crowned English champions.^[5] There was an outcry from fans and this proposal was dropped.

2003–2014: The ascendancy of the playoffs[]

From the beginning of the 2002–03 season, a new playoff format was introduced to replace the 8-team Championship. The format required the first-placed team in the league to play the winner of a match between the second- and third-placed teams. Critically, the winner of this game (the Premiership Final) would be recognised as English champions. Although Gloucester won the league by a clear margin, they then faced a three-week wait until the final. Having lost their momentum, they were beaten by second-placed Wasps (who had defeated third-placed Northampton) in the play-offs. The playoff structure was reformatted in the 2005–06 season in which the first-placed team would play the fourth placed team in a semi-final (a Shaughnessy playoff).

Since the implementation of the playoff system, only five teams have won both the regular season and playoffs in the same year: Leicester in 2000–01 (the first year of the playoffs), 2008–09 and 2009–10, Sale Sharks in 2005–06, Harlequins in 2011–12, Saracens in 2015–16 and Exeter in 2019–20.

Of all the Premiership teams, Wasps have made a reputation for playing the competition format to perfection, peaking at the right time to be crowned English Champions in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2008. Wasps did not lead the league standings at the end of the season in any of these years. Conversely, Gloucester have garnered an unfortunate reputation for leading the table at the end of the regular season, only to fall short of winning the Premiership title, losing finals in 2003, 2007, and 2008. Gloucester's single victory in the playoffs, in 2002, occurred when league leaders Leicester were still considered English champions, meaning Gloucester's Championship victory was considered secondary.

The 2011–12 season saw Harlequins add their name to the trophy on their first attempt, winning 30–23 against the nine-times champions Leicester. Leicester would have to wait until 2012–13 for their 10th championship, where they defeated Northampton in the final.

The 2013–14 Aviva Premiership season saw Northampton become the 8th different team to win the trophy. This was achieved when they defeated Leicester Tigers in the semi-final 21–20, thus denying Leicester a 10th Consecutive Final.^[6] In the final, they defeated Saracens 20–24 with a try in the last minute of extra time to win the 2013–14 Aviva Premiership.^[7][8]

2014–2018: US initiatives[]

With the future of the Heineken Cup uncertain beyond 2013–14, due to a row between England's Premiership Rugby Limited and France's LNR on one side and the sport's governing bodies on the other, Premiership Rugby Limited explored several moves toward expanding its brand into the United States. In May 2013, Premiership Rugby Limited and U.S.-based RugbyLaw entered into a plan by which the two organisations were to help back a proposed U.S. professional league that could have begun play as early as 2014.^[9] The first phase of the plan was to involve two preseason exhibitions featuring an "American Barbarians" side that would combine international veterans and young American talent. The "Barbarians" were intended to play matches in August 2013 in the U.S. and London, but those plans fell through, and the matches were indefinitely delayed.^[10]

In August 2013, Leicester Tigers chairman Peter Tom confirmed that Premiership Rugby Limited had discussed the possibility of bringing select Premiership matches to the US.^[9][11] The first match played in the USA was on 12 March 2016 when London Irish were defeated by Saracens at the Red Bull Arena in the New York Metropolitan Area.^[12] This match was intended to be the first of a three-year deal which would have seen London Irish play one home match each season in the US, but their relegation from the Premiership at the end of the 2015–16 season scuttled that plan.^[13] A new deal was reached with American sports marketing company AEG in 2017 which was intended to see at least one Premiership match taken to the US for four seasons starting in 2017–18. The first match under the new deal was held on 16 September 2017, with Newcastle Falcons taking their home fixture against Saracens to the Talen Energy Stadium in the Philadelphia suburb of Chester, Pennsylvania.^[13] In 2018–19, although no match was scheduled to take place in the US, the round 6 match between Saracens and Harlequins was the first broadcast on network television in the US of a Premiership Rugby game. The game was shown live on NBC. In 2019–20, and 2020–21 once again no matches were scheduled to take place in the US.

2018 also saw a revamp of the league's secondary competition with the launch of the Premiership Rugby Shield.

2018–19: CVC Capital Partners investment[]

In December 2018 it was announced that the Luxembourg based investment advisory firm CVC Capital Partners had bought a 27% stake in Premiership Rugby in a deal worth £200m.^[14] A previous offer to purchase a 51% majority share was rejected.^[15] The money from the investment was planned to be used to improve facilities at clubs and grow the game globally.^[16]

2019–20: Salary Cap investigation into Saracens[]

In March 2019, allegations emerged that Saracens may have broken the league's salary cap. In June, Premiership Rugby announced that they would investigate the allegations.^[17] In November 2019, Saracens were found to have been in breach of the salary cap regulations due to failure to disclose player payments in the 2016–17, 2017–18 and 2018–19 seasons, which would have taken them over the senior player cap.^[18] They were handed a 35-point deduction for the 2019–20 season and fined £5.3 million.^[19][18] The judgement found that Saracens had been reckless in entering into the arrangements with players without disclosing them to Premiership Rugby.^[20]

On 18 January 2020, Premiership Rugby announced that Saracens would be relegated to the RFU Championship for the 2020–21 season.^[21] Premiership Rugby CEO Darren Childs said this punishment was due to Saracens lack of cooperation in a mid-season audit to prove compliance in the 2019–20 season.^[22][23]

On 23 January 2020, Lord Dyson's full report into Saracens' spending was published, it revealed that Saracens had overspent the salary cap by £1.1m in 2016–17, £98,000 in 2017-18 and £906,000 in 2018–19. These included £923,947.63 of property investments between Nigel Wray and three unnamed Saracens players. It also included Saracens claim that the Salary Cap was unenforceable under competition law, this defence was rejected.^[24] On 28 January 2020, Premiership Rugby applied a further 70 point deduction for the 2019–20 season to ensure Saracens would finish bottom of the league table.^[25]

2020–2024: Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and expansion of the league.[]

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted all elite sports in England in spring 2020. The RFU initially suspended both the Premiership and Championship before eventually cancelling the Championship season.^[26] Newcastle Falcons, who topped the Championship table at the time of the season's premature end were promoted based on their playing record and would replace Saracens in the Premiership the following season.^[27]

The 2019–20 Premiership Rugby season recommenced on 14 August and the final was held 24 October 2020.^[28]

The disruption of the 2019–20 season meant the 2020–21 season commenced 10 weeks late on 20 November 2020 and ran over a reduced timeframe of 32 weeks (down from 42).^[29]

The financial impact of the pandemic also caused the salary cap to be temporarily reduced for a maximum of 3 seasons from the 2021–22 season.^[30]

A moratorium on relegation was also approved in February 2021, meaning no teams would be relegated as a potential consequence of another team receiving more points due to games cancelled because of COVID-19. With this news it was also confirmed that the league's minimum standards criteria for promotion would be reviewed as would league structure from 2021–22.^[31] The new structure extends the moratorium on relegation for a further two-years and is expanded to includes promotion into the league for the 2023–24 season. A playoff between the top team in the Championship and the bottom team in the Premiership is also introduced in the 2023–24 season.^[32]

Clubs[]

Current clubs[]

Club	Established	City	Stadium	Capacity*	Titles (Last)**
Bath	1865	Bath	The Recreation Ground	14,509	6 (1996)
Bristol Bears	1888	Bristol	Ashton Gate	27,000	– (N/A)
Exeter Chiefs	1871	Exeter	Sandy Park	13,593	2 (2020)
Gloucester	1873	Gloucester	Kingsholm Stadium	16,115	– (N/A)
Harlequins	1866	London (Twickenham)	Twickenham Stoop	14,800	2 (2021)
Leicester Tigers	1880	Leicester	Mattioli Woods Welford Road	26,849	10 (2013)
London Irish	1898	London (Brentford)	Brentford Community Stadium	18,250	– (N/A)
Newcastle Falcons	1877	Newcastle-upon-Tyne	Kingston Park	10,200	1 (1998)
Northampton Saints	1880	Northampton	cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens	15,200	1 (2014)
Sale Sharks	1861	Salford	AJ Bell Stadium	12,000	1 (2006)
Saracens	1876	London (Hendon)	StoneX Stadium	8,500	5 (2019)
Wasps	1867	Coventry	Coventry Building Society Arena	32,753	6 (2008)
Worcester Warriors	1871	Worcester	Sixways Stadium	11,500	– (N/A)

• Note: Capacity listed for rugby union games may differ from official stadium capacity

All time[]

A total of 28 clubs have been involved in the top-flight since the league's inception in the 1987–88 season. The most recent club to make its debut in the Premiership was London Welsh, which made their top flight debut in 2012–13.

Four clubs—Bath, Gloucester, Leicester Tigers and Wasps—have appeared in every season to date. Harlequins have only missed the 2005–06 season. Six other clubs have appeared in at least 20 seasons: Saracens, Northampton, Sale, London Irish, Bristol and Newcastle.

Coventry, Liverpool St Helens, Moseley, Nottingham, Rosslyn Park, Rugby and Waterloo only appeared during the amateur era, whereas Exeter Chiefs, Leeds, London Welsh, Richmond, Rotherham and Worcester have only appeared during the professional era.

Below, the 2021–22 clubs are listed in bold; ever-present clubs are listed in bold italics. Years listed are the calendar years in which the seasons ended. All current teams will remain in the league until at least 2023.

Seasons	Team	Dates
36	Bath	1988–2023
25	Bristol	1988–1998, 2000–2003, 2006–2009, 2017, 2019–2023
3	Bedford	1990, 1999–2000
1	Coventry	1988
13	Exeter	2011–2023
36	Gloucester	1988–2023
35	Harlequins	1988–2005, 2007–2023
8	Leeds	2002–2006, 2008, 2010–2011
36	Leicester	1988–2023
2	Liverpool St Helens	1989, 1991
28	London Irish	1992–1994, 1997–2016, 2018, 2020–2023
2	London Scottish	1993, 1999
2	London Welsh	2013, 2015
4	Moseley	1988–1992
24	Newcastle	1994, 1998–2012, 2014–2019, 2021–2023
31	Northampton	1991–1995, 1997–2007, 2009–2023
5	Nottingham	1988–1992
10	Orrell	1988–1997
2	Richmond	1998–1999
4	Rosslyn Park	1989–1992
2	Rotherham	2001, 2004
2	Rugby	1992–1993
30	Sale	1988, 1995–2023
31	Saracens	1990–1993, 1996–2020, 2022–2023
36	Wasps	1988–2023
2	Waterloo	1988–1989
5	West Hartlepool	1993, 1995–1997, 1999
17	Worcester	2005–2010, 2012–2014, 2016–2023

Sponsorship[]

Period	Sponsor	Name	League Title
1987–1997	Courage Brewery	Courage League National Division One	National Division One
1997–2000	Allied Dunbar	Allied Dunbar Premiership	Premiership 1
2000–2005	Zurich Insurance Group	Zurich Premiership	Premiership
2005–2010	Guinness	Guinness Premiership
2010–2018	Aviva	Aviva Premiership
2018–current	Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.	Gallagher Premiership

Structure[]

Referees[]

Referees in the Premiership are selected from the RFU's Professional Referee Unit. The Professional Referee Unit consists of 15 referees with match appointments decided by PRU management team of ex-international referees Ed Morrison, Brian Campsall and Tony Spreadbury.^[33]

List of Premiership Referees

Source:^[33]

They are supported by a large team of assistant referees.

League Season[]

The Premiership Rugby league season typically runs from September to June and comprises 26 rounds of matches, with each club playing each other home and away. Each team will receive two bye weeks. The results of the matches contribute points to the league as follows:

• 4 points are awarded for a win
• 2 points are awarded for a draw
• 0 points are awarded for a loss, however
  • 1 losing (bonus) point is awarded to a team that loses a match by 7 points or fewer
  • 1 additional (bonus) point is awarded to a team scoring 4 tries or more in a match

Play offs[]

Following the completion of the regular season, the top 4 teams enter the play offs, which are held in June. The top two teams receive home advantage, the league leaders hosting the 4th ranked team, and the 2nd place team hosting the 3rd place team. The winners of these semi-finals progress to the final, held at Twickenham Stadium, with the winner of the final being crowned champions.

Promotion and Relegation[]

Previously there was a system of promotion and relegation between the Premiership and the RFU Championship whereby one club was relegated from the league and one club was promoted into it.^[34] Currently the last placed club after the league season remains in the league and the winner of the Championship is promoted to the Premiership for the subsequent season.

Promotion from the Championship (regardless of the format used) is subject to Minimum Standards Criteria. If the team scheduled for promotion does not meet these standards, then there is no promotion. In the 2011–12 season London Welsh won promotion from the Championship. They were initially denied promotion under the criteria, reprieving Newcastle Falcons from relegation, but successfully appealed against their block and achieved promotion.^[35]

In February 2021 a moratorium was approved on relegation from the league for that season. Promotion from the Championship would still take place meaning the league expanded to 13 teams from 2021–22.^[31] The moratorium was extended by an additional two seasons in June 2021. This means the Premiership may expand again to 14 teams from 2022–23. The new regulations also introduce a moratorium on promotion from the Championship in the same season and introduce a play-off between the bottom placed Premiership Club and top placed Championship club in 2023–24.^[32]

European competition qualification[]

The top seven teams qualify for the following season's European Rugby Champions Cup. The eighth champions cup place is awarded to either the winner of the Challenge Cup or the team placed 8th. Teams placed 8-12th that do not qualify for the Champions Cup play in the Challenge Cup.

Champions[]

Between 1987 and 2002, the team at the top of the league was crowned English champions. Since 2002–03, the winner of the league has been determined by a Premiership Final, which takes place at Twickenham and consists of two rounds of knock-out play amongst the top four teams. In most seasons, at least one team has been relegated at the end of the season, although in 1995–96, there was no relegation to allow division expansion, and in 2001–02, Leeds were given a reprieve because the Division One champions did not have a suitable ground to allow promotion. Relegation was also suspended between 2020–21 and 2022–23 to allow further expansion.

Season	Champions	Final	Runners-up	Relegated
1987–88	Leicester	N/A	Wasps	Sale, Coventry
1988–89	Bath		Gloucester	Liverpool St Helens, Waterloo
1989–90	Wasps		Gloucester	Bedford
1990–91	Bath		Wasps	Liverpool St Helens, Moseley
1991–92	Bath		Orrell	Rosslyn Park, Nottingham
1992–93	Bath		Gloucester	Rugby Lions, West Hartlepool, Saracens, London Scottish
1993–94	Bath		Leicester	Newcastle Gosforth, London Irish
1994–95	Leicester		Bath	Northampton
1995–96	Bath		Leicester	No relegation
1996–97	Wasps		Bath	Orrell, West Hartlepool
1997–98	Newcastle		Saracens	Bristol
1998–99	Leicester		Northampton	West Hartlepool
1999–00	Leicester		Bath	Bedford
2000–01	Leicester		Wasps	Rotherham
2001–02	Leicester		Sale	No relegation No team promoted
2002–03	Wasps	39 – 3	Gloucester	Bristol
2003–04	Wasps	10 – 6	Bath	Rotherham
2004–05	Wasps	39 – 14	Leicester	Harlequins
2005–06	Sale	45 – 20	Leicester	Leeds
2006–07	Leicester	44 – 16	Gloucester	Northampton
2007–08	Wasps	26 – 16	Leicester	Leeds
2008–09	Leicester	10 – 9	London Irish	Bristol
2009–10	Leicester	33 – 27	Saracens	Worcester
2010–11	Saracens	22 – 18	Leicester	Leeds
2011–12	Harlequins	30 – 23	Leicester	Newcastle
2012–13	Leicester	37 – 17	Northampton	London Welsh
2013–14	Northampton	24 – 20 (a.e.t.)	Saracens	Worcester
2014–15	Saracens	28 – 16	Bath	London Welsh
2015–16	Saracens	28 – 20	Exeter	London Irish
2016–17	Exeter	23 – 20 (a.e.t.)	Wasps	Bristol
2017–18	Saracens	27 – 10	Exeter	London Irish
2018–19	Saracens	37 – 34	Exeter	Newcastle
2019–20	Exeter	19 – 13	Wasps	Saracens
2020–21	Harlequins	40 – 38	Exeter	No relegation
2021–22				No relegation

Summary of winners and runners-up[]

#	Team	Champions	Years as champions	Runners-up	Years as runners-up	Top of league table
1	Leicester Tigers	10	1987–88, 1994–95, 1998–99, 1999–00, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2006–07, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2012–13	7	1993–94, 1995–96, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2007–08, 2010–11, 2011–12	10
2	Bath	6	1988–89, 1990–91, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1995–96	5	1994–95, 1996–97, 1999–00, 2003–04, 2014–15	7
	Wasps		1989–90, 1996–97, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2007–08		1987–88, 1990–91, 2000–01, 2016–17, 2019–20	3
4	Saracens	5	2010–11, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2017–18*, 2018–19*	3	1997–98, 2009–10, 2013–14	3
5	Exeter Chiefs	2	2016–17, 2019–20	4	2015–16, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2020–21	3
	Harlequins		2011–12, 2020–21	0	N/A	1
7	Northampton Saints	1	2013–14	2	1998–99, 2012–13	1
	Sale Sharks		2005–06	1	2001–02
	Newcastle Falcons		1997–98	0	N/A
10	Gloucester	0	N/A	5	1988–89, 1989–90, 1992–93, 2002–03, 2006–07	3
	London Irish			1	2008–09	0
	Orrell				1991–92
	Bristol Bears			0	N/A	1

Player records[]

All records relate to the 1997–98 season onward when National League One was re-launched as the Premiership.

Source:^[36]

As of 27 June 2021. Bold italics denote players active in the 2021–22 Premiership.

Appearances[]

Rank	Player	Club(s)	Years	Apps
1	Richard Wigglesworth	Sale, Saracens, Leicester	2002–	304
2	Steve Borthwick	Bath, Saracens	1998–2014	265
3	George Chuter	Saracens, Leicester	1997–2014	262
	Phil Dowson	Newcastle, Northampton, Worcester	2001–2017
5	Charlie Hodgson	Sale, Saracens	2000–2016	254
6	Tom May	Newcastle, Northampton, London Welsh	1999–2015	247
7	Mike Brown	Harlequins, Newcastle	2005–	246
8	Hugh Vyvyan	Newcastle, Saracens	1998–2012	245
9	Simon Shaw	Bristol, Wasps	1997–2011	237
10	Andy Goode	Leicester, Saracens, Worcester, Wasps, Newcastle	1998–2016	236

Points[]

Rank	Player	Club(s)	Years	Points
1	Charlie Hodgson	Sale, Saracens	2000–2016	2,625
2	Andy Goode	Leicester, Saracens, Worcester, Wasps, Newcastle	1998–2016	2,285
3	Stephen Myler	Northampton, London Irish	2006–2020	1,778
4	Nick Evans	Harlequins	2008–2017	1,656
5	Gareth Steenson	Exeter	2010–2020	1,651
6	Olly Barkley	Bath, Gloucester, London Welsh	2001–2015	1,605
7	Jimmy Gopperth	Newcastle Falcons, Wasps	2009–	1,566
8	George Ford	Leicester, Bath	2009–	1,507
9	Jonny Wilkinson	Newcastle	1997–2008	1,489
10	Owen Farrell	Saracens	2010–	1,423

Tries[]

Rank	Player	Club(s)	Years	Tries
1	Tom Varndell	Leicester, Wasps, Bristol	2004–2017	92
2	Mark Cueto	Sale	2001–2015	90
3	Chris Ashton	Northampton, Saracens, Sale, Harlequins, Worcester	2008–	89
4	Christian Wade	Wasps	2011–2018	82
5	Steve Hanley	Sale	1998–2007	75
6	Danny Care	Leeds, Harlequins	2005–	75
7	Matt Banahan	Bath, Gloucester	2007–2021	71
8	Paul Sackey	Bedford, London Irish, Wasps, Harlequins	1999–2014	69
	Jonny May	Gloucester, Leicester	2010–
10	Tom Voyce	Bath, Wasps, Gloucester, London Welsh	2000–2013	66

Attendances[]

Season	Total	Average
2002–03	1,183,972	8,518
2003–04	1,241,557	9,062
2004–05	1,481,355	10,813
2005–06	1,483,920	10,922
2006–07	1,598,734	11,842
2007–08	1,517,863	11,243
2008–09	1,671,781	12,384
2009–10	1,900,177	14,075
2010–11	1,740,751	12,894
2011–12	1,755,073	13,001
2012–13	1,684,804	12,480
2013–14	1,721,729	12,754
2014–15	1,804,914	13,370
2015–16	1,837,427	13,611
2016–17	2,033,805	15,065
2017–18	1,912,301	14,165
2018–19	1,958,402	14,507

Salary cap[]

The English Premiership operates a salary cap,^[37] set by the Premiership Rugby Board, specifying the money a club can spend on the player salaries of its squad per season. Until the 2024–25 season, the base cap is £5 million, with an "academy credit" of up to £600,000 (£100,000 per player for up to six players).

A club may use the academy credit on a player that: (i) joined the club before his 18th birthday; (ii) is under age 24 at the start of the season; and (iii) earns a salary of more than £50,000. Under the credit scheme, the first £100,000 of a qualifying player's salary is not counted against the cap.

Exclusions[]

Since the 2015–16 season, each club has been allowed to exclude two players from the cap calculations, an increase from one in prior seasons.

The first "excluded player" slot can be filled by any player on a team's current roster who meets any of the following criteria:

• Played with his Premiership club for at least two full seasons before he was nominated as an excluded player.
• Played with his Premiership club for the full season before being nominated as an excluded player, after having played outside the Premiership.
• Played outside the Premiership in the season before he was nominated.

The second slot can only be filled by a player who had been outside the Premiership for at least one full season before signing his initial contract with his current Premiership club. For purposes of the exclusion rule, "initial contract" means the first contract signed for the 2015–16 season or later, meaning that a player who returned to a prior Premiership club after spending at least one full season outside the Premiership can qualify for the second slot.

Media coverage[]

In the United Kingdom, the rights are currently held by BT Sport under a new deal signed on 18 December 2020 replacing former deals signed on 16 March 2015 and 12 September 2012.^[38][39] The new deal sees BT broadcast up to 80 live matches per season from both Premiership Rugby and the Premiership Rugby Cup until the end of the 2023–24 season along with extended highlights of all matches and midweek programming.^[40] UK rights were also held by Channel 5 who simulcast 5 matches live on a free-to-air basis, with a different commentary team as opposed to BT's commentary team, and also showed a weekly highlights programme until the end of the 2020–21 season.^[41] In Australia the Premiership is available on beIN Sports. In the United States, the Premiership is available on NBC Sports since spring 2016. It has also been broadcast in China since 2017.

Talksport and BBC Radio 5 Live, along with various BBC Local Radio stations broadcast commentary and magazine programming.

See also[]

• Top 14, French equivalent of the Premiership, second of the three major northern hemisphere leagues.
• United Rugby Championship, cross-border equivalent of the Premiership, third of the three major northern hemisphere leagues.
• English rugby union system
• List of English rugby union teams
• Premiership Rugby Cup
• Anglo-Welsh Cup (superseded by the Premiership Rugby Cup)
• Premiership Rugby Shield
• RFU Championship, second tier of English club rugby, from which teams are promoted from, and into which teams are relegated from, the Premiership.
• European Professional Club Rugby
• European Rugby Champions Cup
• European Rugby Challenge Cup
• Premiership Rugby Sevens Series
• List of attendance figures at domestic professional sports leagues
• List of English rugby union stadiums by capacity
• List of professional sports teams in the United Kingdom

References[]

Notes[]

External links[]

• Official website
• Guinness Premiership Rugby Week
• English rugby union news BBC Sport
• All Time Premiership Records