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Premiership Women's Rugby
Women's rugby union club competition in England From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Premiership Women's Rugby – commonly known as The PWR – is an annual semi-professional women's rugby union club competition at the highest level of the English rugby union system, and is run by the Rugby Football Union (RFU).[1] It is contested by nine clubs, who play two series of round-robin matches to determine the four participants of the play-offs, which takes the form of a single-elimination tournament. It began play in the 2017–18 season, superseding the former Women's Premiership, and introducing elements of professionalism in the sport's highest level. In its first six seasons, the competition was known as the Premier 15s. Gloucester-Hartpury are the current champions, while they and Saracens have won the most championships (3).
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Premiership Women's Rugby runs concurrently with the PWR Cup, a similar annual competition contested by the same clubs, which was introduced in the 2021–22 season. Unlike the league format, teams are instead split into two pools, and only play one series of round-robin matches to determine places in the competition's play-offs.[2] The Cup was most recently won by Saracens, while Exeter Chiefs have won the most cups (2).
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History
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2016–2023: Premier 15s
The RFU founded the competition as "Women's Super Rugby" in October 2016, committing to a three-year, £2.4 million investment.[3][4][5] A bidding process was opened to clubs seeking to operate a franchise in the new league, with the RFU initially planning to have all eight Women's Premiership teams and two new teams compete.[5] Minimum standards were raised for aspiring franchise owners, such as requiring clubs to invest in professional training facilities and coaching resources.[5][6]
After interviews with twelve clubs at Twickenham Stadium, the RFU announced the league's ten foundation clubs in February 2017.[7][8] The decision to admit all Premiership clubs (Aylesford Bulls Ladies being taken over by Harlequins to become Harlequins Ladies) except for Lichfield Ladies, despite their fifteen-year presence in the top flight, was controversial. As the club expressed being "disgusted, disappointed and dumbfounded",[9] Leicester Tigers, and Member for Lichfield Michael Fabricant, unsuccessfully attempted to overturn the decision,[10][11] with the latter claiming the selection of only ten teams violated the Equality Act 2010, as the men's Premiership Rugby had twelve teams.[11] The Thurrock T-Birds, who won the 2016–17 Championship 1 South season, also unsuccessfully attempted to appeal their exclusion.[12][13]
The seven Premiership clubs would join Gloucester-Hartpury, Loughborough Lightning, and Waterloo in the inaugural season of the league, which had been rebranded to the "Premier 15s" prior to its start. Potato crisps manufacturer Tyrrells obtained its naming rights for three years, in what was described by the RFU as "the biggest ever financial investment in women's club rugby."[3][14][15]
Financial services company Allianz began their naming rights sponsorship ahead of the 2020–21 season.[16] The two independent clubs, Richmond and Waterloo, were replaced with the Premiership Rugby-affiliated Exeter Chiefs and Sale Sharks. The RFU stressed the need for financially viable clubs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.[17] Worcester Warriors were temporarily suspended during the 2022–23 season due to financial difficulties.[18] These were resolved within a month and Worcester were unsuspended.[19]
2023 onwards: Premiership Women's Rugby
Trailfinders and Leicester Tigers were admitted into the league in the 2023–24 season, as the competition rebranded to "Premiership Women's Rugby".[20][21] Sale Sharks and Worcester Warriors were initially excluded from the 2023–24 season alongside DMP Sharks and Wasps. Sale and Worcester were given conditional invitations by the RFU to rejoin for the 2023–24 season, in order to maintain the number of clubs in the league at ten.[22][23]
Withdrawal of Worcester Warriors Women
On 17 October 2023, the owners of Worcester Warriors Women, Cube International, notified the RFU and PWR that they intended to withdraw Worcester Warriors Women from Premiership Women's Rugby and the Allianz Cup.[24][25] The impact on the season's fixtures was not announced, however Worcester's next fixture, the Allianz Cup match against Bristol Bears Women was cancelled.[24][25]
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Teams
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Nine teams are currently competing in Premiership Women's Rugby, as of the 2024–25 season.[26]
Locations of teams in Premiership Women's Rugby and the Allianz Cup
Locations of clubs in Greater London
All time
A total of 14 clubs have been involved in the top flight since the league's inception in the 2017–18 season. The most recent clubs to make debuts in Premiership Woman's Rugby were Trailfinders Women and Leicester Tigers Women, who made their top-flight debut in the 2023–24 season.
Five clubs — Bristol, Gloucester-Hartpury, Harlequins, Loughborough and Saracens — have appeared in every season to date.
Below is a list of clubs that have participated in the competition and the number of full seasons they've competed in. Clubs currently active are marked in bold, while those that have been ever-present in are listed in bold italics. The last column shows the seasons each club has participated in, including the current one.
Note: The 2019–20 season is not counted as it was abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Sponsorship
Structure
League season
The Premiership Women's Rugby league season typically runs from September to June and comprises 18 rounds of matches, with each club playing each other home and away. In the 2023–24 season, each club also had 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 usually 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, with no set venue, with the winner of the final being crowned champions. In the inaugural season, the play-offs comprised back-to-back home and away fixtures, with the winner being determined by an aggregate score. This was changed to single matches from the following season onwards.[4]
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Champions
Summary of winners
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Player records
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All player records relate to the 2017–18 season onwards, following the launch of the Premier 15s competition (which was later re-branded as Premiership Women's Rugby).[40]
- As of 24 June 2023
Points
Tries
Goal kicking
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Broadcast
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In the 2022–23 season, at least two matches per round were streamed on the competition website. At least one of these matches will also be shown on the BBC iPlayer and BBC Red Button. Both semi-finals and the final were shown on the competition website, BBC iPlayer, and the BBC Red Button.[41] As part of Harlequins Big Game double-header with Harlequins Men, TNT Sports broadcast one regular season game as well as both semi-finals and the final. Unlike the BBC, TNT Sports uses its own punditry and commentary for the matches they broadcast.[42]
From the 2023–24 season, TNT Sports gained broadcasting rights to one game per weekend as well as both the semi-finals and the final.[43][44][45] As part of the deal, there is provision for a free-to-air provider to show both the semi-finals and final.[45] The competition CEO Belinda Moore revealed that discussions to try to gain a terrestrial broadcaster for the competition were ongoing.[45] The same game shown by TNT sports will be aired by The Rugby Network in the United States and Canada and by RugbyPassTV outside of the UK, Ireland, US, and Canada.[46][47] BBC Sport and BBC iPlayer showing select games throughout the season.[48]
From the 2025–26 season, TNT Sports will continue to air one game per round, as well as both semi-finals and the final. BBC Sport will show one of the other three games per round, along with one semi-final and the final, which will be available on the BBC Sport app and BBC iPlayer. The remaining two games of each round will be broadcast on the official Premiership Women’s Rugby YouTube channel. This will mark the first time in the competition’s history that every single league match is broadcast live.[49][50][51]
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Notes
References
External links
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