English Prem Rugby

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Poster

Established
1987 (38 years old)

First Recorded Event
2010-09-03

Current Season
2025-2026

Current Round
6

Sport
Sport Icon

Rugby

Location
England

Gender
Male

TV Rights
US - NBC Sports [2016-2021]

Logo

Upcoming
19 Dec	Leicester	7:45pm	Glouceste
20 Dec	Northampt	3:00pm	Sale Shar
20 Dec	Saracens	3:00pm	Exeter Ch
20 Dec	Harlequin	5:30pm	Bristol B
21 Dec	Newcastle	3:00pm	Bath Rugb
26 Dec	Sale Shar	5:30pm	Harlequin
27 Dec	Bristol B	3:00pm	Newcastle
27 Dec	Glouceste	3:05pm	Saracens
27 Dec	Bath Rugb	5:30pm	Northampt
28 Dec	Exeter Ch	3:00pm	Leicester
Results
30 Nov	Saracens	29 - 36	Bath Rugb
29 Nov	Bristol B	46 - 12	Northampt
29 Nov	Glouceste	26 - 15	Harlequin
28 Nov	Newcastle	17 - 39	Leicester
28 Nov	Sale Shar	26 - 27	Exeter Ch
25 Oct	Leicester	36 - 35	Sale Shar
25 Oct	Bath Rugb	40 - 15	Bristol B
25 Oct	Harlequin	52 - 14	Newcastle
25 Oct	Exeter Ch	39 - 12	Glouceste
24 Oct	Northampt	43 - 31	Saracens

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