English Prem Rugby

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Poster

Established
1987 (39 years old)

First Recorded Event
2010-09-03

Current Season
2025-2026

Current Round
12

Sport
Sport Icon

Rugby

Location
England

Gender
Male

TV Rights
US - NBC Sports [2016-2021]

Logo

Upcoming
17 Apr	Bristol B	6:45pm	Glouceste
18 Apr	Leicester	2:00pm	Newcastle
18 Apr	Exeter Ch	2:05pm	Northampt
18 Apr	Bath Rugb	4:30pm	Harlequin
19 Apr	Sale Shar	2:00pm	Saracens
24 Apr	Newcastle	6:45pm	Bristol B
25 Apr	Harlequin	2:00pm	Sale Shar
25 Apr	Saracens	2:05pm	Leicester
25 Apr	Northampt	4:30pm	Bath Rugb
26 Apr	Glouceste	2:30pm	Exeter Ch
Results
29 Mar	Sale Shar	26 - 31	Bath Rugb
28 Mar	Saracens	17 - 21	Northampt
28 Mar	Bristol B	14 - 18	Harlequin
28 Mar	Glouceste	17 - 36	Leicester
27 Mar	Newcastle	14 - 38	Exeter Ch
22 Mar	Leicester	33 - 19	Bristol B
21 Mar	Exeter Ch	26 - 14	Sale Shar
21 Mar	Northampt	28 - 27	Newcastle
21 Mar	Harlequin	19 - 26	Glouceste
20 Mar	Bath Rugb	62 - 15	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