English Prem Rugby

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Poster

Established
1987 (38 years old)

First Recorded Event
2010-09-03

Current Season
2025-2026

Sport
Sport Icon

Rugby

Location
England

Gender
Male

TV Rights
US - NBC Sports [2016-2021]

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Upcoming
25 Sep	Sale Shar	6:45pm	Glouceste
26 Sep	Harlequin	6:45pm	Bath Rugb
26 Sep	Newcastle	6:45pm	Saracens
28 Sep	Northampt	12:00pm	Exeter Ch
28 Sep	Bristol B	2:30pm	Leicester
03 Oct	Bath Rugb	6:45pm	Sale Shar
04 Oct	Exeter Ch	2:00pm	Newcastle
04 Oct	Leicester	2:05pm	Harlequin
04 Oct	Saracens	4:30pm	Bristol B
05 Oct	Glouceste	2:00pm	Northampt
Results
14 Jun	Bath Rugb	23 - 21	Leicester
07 Jun	Leicester	21 - 16	Sale Shar
06 Jun	Bath Rugb	34 - 20	Bristol B
31 May	Saracens	36 - 26	Bath Rugb
31 May	Leicester	42 - 20	Newcastle
31 May	Glouceste	41 - 26	Northampt
31 May	Exeter Ch	26 - 30	Sale Shar
31 May	Bristol R	52 - 26	Harlequin
18 May	Harlequin	24 - 22	Exeter Ch
17 May	Northampt	28 - 24	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