Premiership Women's Rugby

Premiership Women's Rugby, officially known as Allianz Premiership Women's Rugby, is an annual pro–am 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). It is contested by nine clubs who play two series of round-robin matches to determine the four participants of a climatic single-elimination tournament. It began play in the 2017–18 season, superseding the former Rugby Football Union for 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 Saracens have won the most championships (3).

Premiership Women's Rugby
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2023–24 Premiership Women's Rugby
SportRugby union
Founded2017 (2017)
CEOBelinda Moore
AdministratorRFU
No. of teams9
CountryEngland England
Most recent
champion(s)		Gloucester-Hartpury (1st title)
(2022–23)
Most titlesSaracens (3 titles)
TV partner(s)thepwr.com
BBC iPlayer
TNT Sports (Certain fixtures)
Level on pyramidLevel 1
Relegation toNo relegation
Domestic cup(s)Allianz Cup
Official websitewww.thepwr.com

Premiership Women's Rugby runs concurrently with the Allianz Cup, a similar annual competition contested by the same clubs, in which the teams are instead split into two pools, and only play one series of round-robin matches to determine places in the competition's tournament. The Allianz Cup began play in the 2021–22 season, and has been won twice by the Exeter Chiefs.

History

2016–2023 Premier 15's

The RFU founded the competition as "Women's Super Rugby" in October 2016, committing to a three-year, £2.4 million investment.[1][2][3] 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.[3] Minimum standards were raised for aspiring franchise owners, such as requiring clubs to invest in professional training facilities and coaching resources.[3][4]

After interviews with twelve clubs at Twickenham Stadium, the RFU announced the league's ten foundation clubs in February 2017.[5][6] 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",[7] Leicester Tigers, and Member for Lichfield Michael Fabricant, unsuccessfully attempted to overturn the decision,[8][9] with the latter claiming the selection of only ten teams violated the Equality Act 2010, as the men's Premiership Rugby had twelve teams.[10] The Thurrock T-Birds, who won the 2016–17 Championship 1 South season, also unsuccessfully attempted to appeal their exclusion.[11][12]

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."[1][13][14]

Financial services company Allianz began their naming rights sponsorship ahead of the 2020–21 season.[15] 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.[16] Worcester Warriors were temporarily suspended during the 2022–23 season due to financial difficulties.[17] These were resolved within a month and Worcester were unsuspended.[18]

2023 onwards: Premiership Women's Rugby

Ealing Trailfinders and Leicester Tigers were admitted into the league in the 2023–24 season, as the competition rebranded to "Premiership Women's Rugby".[19][20] 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.[21][22]

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.[23][24] 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.[23][24]

Format

In Premiership Women's Rugby, each team plays the other nine teams twice in a round-robin format, with the top four teams qualifying for a single-elimination tournament using the Shaughnessy playoff system. 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 the following season onwards.[2]

Teams

Ten teams compete in the 2023-24 season of Premiership Women's Rugby and the Allianz Cup. This was reduced to nine following the withdrawal of Worcester.

Locations of teams in Premiership Women's Rugby and the Allianz Cup
Locations of clubs in Greater London
Current teams
Team Location Stadium Capacity
Bristol Bears Bristol Shaftesbury Park 200
Ashton Gate 27,000
Ealing Trailfinders Ealing (London) Trailfinders Sports Ground 5,000
Exeter Chiefs Exeter Sandy Park 15,600
Gloucester-Hartpury Hartpury The Hartpury Arena 2,000
Gloucester Kingsholm Stadium 16,115
Harlequins Twickenham (London) Twickenham Stoop 14,800
Leicester Tigers Leicester Welford Road 25,849
Loughborough Lightning Northampton Franklin's Gardens[25] 14,249
Sale Sharks Sale (Manchester) Heywood Road 3,387
Saracens Hendon (London) Barnet Copthall Stadium 10,500
Former teams
Team Location Stadium Capacity Played
DMP Sharks Darlington The Darlington Arena 25,500 2017–2023
Waterloo Blundellsands The Memorial Ground 9,000 2017–2019
Richmond Richmond (London) Richmond Athletic Ground 4,500 2017–2019
Wasps Acton (London) Twyford Avenue 2017–2023
Worcester Warriors Worcester Sixways Stadium 11,499 2017–2023

Champions
Season Champions Final Runners-up
2017–18 Saracens 24–20 Harlequins
2018–19 Saracens 33–17 Harlequins
2019–20 Abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2020–21 Harlequins 25–17 Saracens
2021–22 Saracens 43–21 Exeter Chiefs
2022–23 Gloucester-Hartpury 34–19 Exeter Chiefs

Broadcast

Some matches are streamed on the Premier 15s website, and Sky TV may also broadcast some games in the first three seasons.[1] For the 2020–21 season, one match per round was broadcast on the RFU YouTube channel or Premier 15s website, with the semi-finals and final also shown on TNT Sports.[26]

Live streaming continued in the 2021–22 season, with over 40 matches to be shown across the season.[27] From November, one match a week has also been streamed on the BBC Sport website and BBC iPlayer, with some matches also available on BBC Red Button.[28] Harlequins v. Wasps on December 27 was also shown on BT Sport as part of a double-header with the Harlequins men's team at Twickenham Stadium.[29]

Notes
  1. Worcester withdrew from the league on 17 October 2023[23][24]
  2. Worcester withdrew from the league on 17 October 2023[23][24]

References
  1. "Premier 15s: New league a real opportunity for women's rugby", ESPN, Victoria Monk, 15 September 2017.
  2. "Women's Super Rugby to launch in England". Scrumqueens. February 2017.
  3. "England reveal top new women's competition". Scrumqueens. October 2016.
  4. "RFU announce teams for Women's Super Rugby". RFU. 28 February 2017.
  5. Lane, Ellis (28 February 2017). "Gloucester-Hartpury set for new look Women's Premiership". Gloucestershire Live. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  6. "Women's Super Rugby: RFU offers 10 clubs places in 2017 competition". BBC Sport. 28 February 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  7. Beardmore, Michael (2 March 2017). "RUGBY UNION: Lichfield Ladies chief 'disgusted and dumbfounded' by Super League exclusion". Lichfield Mercury. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  8. Mercury, Lichfield (3 March 2017). "Leicester Tigers give their backing to Lichfield Ladies' bid to overturn Super League exclusion". Lichfield Mercury. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  9. Mercury, Lichfield (20 March 2017). "RUGBY UNION: MP vows to raise Lichfield Ladies' 'extraordinary' Super League omission in Parliament". Lichfield Mercury. Archived from the original on 21 March 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  10. Mercury, Lichfield (20 March 2017). "RUGBY UNION: MP vows to raise Lichfield Ladies' 'extraordinary' Super League omission in Parliament". Lichfield Mercury. Archived from the original on 21 March 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  11. "Thurrock women's rugby side set to fight for new big money Super League inclusion". The Enquirer. 16 March 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  12. http://www.englandrugby.com/mm/Document/Governance/Disclipine/01/32/44/70/ThurrockRFCLichfieldRFCjudgmentApril2017_English.pdf
  13. "Tyrrells named as title partner for women's domestic competition" (Press release). Rugby Football Union. 2 August 2017. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
  14. Daniels, Tom (16 May 2020). "Tyrrells ends Women's Premier 15's title sponsorship". Insider Sport.
  15. "RFU And Allianz Announce Landmark Partnership For The Premier 15s". Sale Sharks. 6 October 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  16. "Sale and Exeter join women's top flight". BBC Sport.
  17. "Worcester suspended from competition after owners miss RFU deadline | Rugby union | The Guardian". amp.theguardian.com. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  18. "Worcester Warriors and Wasps given green light to compete despite administration". ITV News. 27 October 2022. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  19. "Allianz Premier 15s Update". www.premier15s.com. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
  20. "Premiership Women's Rugby Launched To Kick Off A New Era For Women's Rugby In England". www.thepwr.com. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  21. "Sharks Women receive conditional offer to join Premier 15s". Sale Sharks. 1 February 2023. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  22. "Warriors Women secures position in Allianz Premier 15s for 2023/24 season". Warriors Women. 1 February 2023. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  23. "Worcester Warriors Women: Premiership Women's Rugby side pull out of 2023-24 season". BBC Sport. 17 October 2023. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  24. "WARRIORS WOMEN WITHDRAW FROM PREMIERSHIP WOMEN'S RUGBY". Premiership Women's Rugby. 17 October 2023. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  25. "Lightning to call the Gardens home as Allianz Premiership Women's Rugby fixture schedule announced". Loughborough Lightning. 9 August 2023. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
  26. "BT Sport to show Premier 15s semi-finals and final". BT.com. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  27. "RFU". www.premier15s.com. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  28. "RFU". www.premier15s.com. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
  29. "RFU". www.premier15s.com. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
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