2007/08 English Rugby Union Championship

The 2007/08 season of the English Premiership was the 21st major league season of the English Rugby Union Championship. For sponsorship reasons it was called the Guinness Premiership . It began on September 15, 2007, comprised 22 game days (each a preliminary and second round) and lasted until May 10, 2008. Then the four best-placed teams qualified for the semi-finals, the semi-final winners met on May 31, 2008 in the final Twickenham Stadium on top of each other. The championship title was won for the fifth time by the London Wasps , Leeds Carnegie had to be relegated .

Guinness Premiership

table

Qualification for semi-finals and participation in the Heineken Cup

Participation in the Heineken Cup

Relegation to National Division One

M: Last year's champion
P: Promotion (promoted) from National Division One

	team	Games	Victories	Unent.	Ndlg.	Game points	Diff.	Bonus points	Table points
01.	Gloucester RFC	22nd	15th	0	7th	551: 377	+ 174	14th	74
02.	London Wasps	22nd	14th	2	6th	599: 459	+ 140	10	70
03.	Bath rugby	22nd	15th	0	7th	526: 387	+ 139	9	69
04th	Leicester Tigers (M)	22nd	13	0	9	539: 428	+ 111	12	64
05.	Sale Sharks	22nd	14th	0	8th	481: 374	+ 107	7th	63
06th	Harlequins	22nd	12	0	10	480: 440	+ 40	15th	63
07th	London Irish	22nd	13	0	9	433: 382	+ 51	7th	59
08th.	Saracens	22nd	11	0	11	533: 525	+ 8	8th	52
09.	Bristol rugby	22nd	7th	1	14th	393: 473	- 80	8th	37 *
10.	Worcester Warriors	22nd	6th	2	14th	387: 472	- 85	8th	36
11.	Newcastle Falcons	22nd	7th	0	15th	333: 542	- 209	6th	34
12.	Leeds Carnegie (P)	22nd	2	1	19th	336: 732	- 396	2	12

* Bristol has had a point deducted for staking an unlicensed player.

The points are distributed as follows:

4 points if you win
2 points if there is a tie
0 points in the event of a loss (before possible bonus points)
1 bonus point for four or more successful attempts , regardless of the final score
1 bonus point if you lose less than seven points

Play-off

Semifinals

May 18, 2008 14:00	London Wasps	21:10	Bath rugby	Adams Park , High Wycombe Spectators: 10,000
May 18, 2008 14:00	Attempts: Waters 30th elevated Flutey 36th elevated Palmer 59th elevated elevations: Cipriani (2) van Gisbergen (1)	(14: 7) Report	Attempts: Crockett 27. Increased increases: Barkley (1) Penalty kicks: Barkley (1) 56.	Adams Park , High Wycombe Spectators: 10,000

May 18, 2008 4:30 p.m.	Gloucester RFC	25:26	Leicester Tigers	Kingsholm Stadium , Gloucester Spectators: 16,500
May 18, 2008 4:30 p.m.	Attempts: Simpson-Daniel 57th increments: Lamb (1) Penalty kicks: Lamb (5) 6th, 17th, 29th, 38th, 49th Dropgoals: Walker (1) 76.	(12: 3) Report	Attempts: Tuilagi 52nd increased Mauger 63rd increased increases: Goode (2) Penalty kicks: Goode (3) 11th, 42nd, 68th Dropgoals: Goode (1) 78.	Kingsholm Stadium , Gloucester Spectators: 16,500

final

May 31, 2008 15:00	London Wasps	26:16	Leicester Tigers	Twickenham Stadium , London Spectators: 81,600
May 31, 2008 15:00	Attempts: Rees 12th increased Lewsey 37th increased increases: van Gisbergen (2) Penalty kicks: van Gisbergen (4) 6th, 24th, 35th, 72nd	(23: 6) Report	Attempts: Varndell 56th n.erh. Ellis 62nd ad. Penalty kicks: Goode (2) 9., 29.	Twickenham Stadium , London Spectators: 81,600


15th	Mark van Gisbergen
14th	Paul Sackey
13	Fraser Waters
12	Dominic Waldouck
11	Josh Lewsey
10	Riki Flutey
09	Eoin Reddan
08th	Lawrence Dallaglio
07th	Tom Rees
06th	James Haskell
05	Tom Palmer
04th	Simon Shaw
03	Phil Vickery
02	Raphaël Ibañez
01	Tim Payne
Substitute:
16	Joe Ward
17th	Pat Barnard
18th	Richard Birkett
19th	Joe Worsley
20th	Mark McMillan
21st	Jeremy Staunton
22nd	John Hart


15th	Geordan Murphy
14th	Tom Varndell
13	Daniel Hipkiss
12	Aaron Mauger
11	Alesana Tuilagi
10	Andy Goode
09	Harry Ellis
08th	Jordan Crane
07th	Ben Herring
06th	Martin Corry
05	Ben Kay
04th	Marco Wentzel
03	Julian White
02	Mefin Davies
01	Boris Stankovich
Substitute:
16	Benjamin Kayser
17th	Marcos Ayerza
18th	Richard Blaze
19th	Tom Croft
20th	Christophe Laussucq
21st	Sam Vesty
22nd	Ayoola Erinle

National Division One

The season of the second division ( National Division One ) lasted from September 1, 2007 to April 26, 2008 and consisted of 30 game days (one first and one second round). The best-placed team Northampton Saints rose undefeated to the Guinness Premiership. Two teams were relegated to National Division Two, the Birmingham & Solihull RFC and the Launceston RUFC .

table

Promotion to the Premiership

Relegation to National Division Two

P: Promotion (promoted) from National Division Two
R: Relegation (relegated) from the Premiership

	team	Games	Victories	Unent.	Ndlg.	Game points	Diff.	Bonus points	Table points
01.	Northampton Saints (R)	30th	30th	0	0	1321: 343	+ 978	23	143
02.	Exeter Chiefs	30th	24	0	6th	899: 424	+ 475	20th	116
03.	Nottingham RFC	30th	23	0	7th	818: 518	+ 300	24	116
04th	Doncaster RFC	30th	21st	0	9	796: 551	+ 245	14th	98
05.	Cornish Pirates	30th	20th	1	9	800: 583	+ 217	12	91
06th	Bedford Blues	30th	18th	0	12	705: 542	+ 163	13	85
07th	London Welsh	30th	15th	0	15th	542: 659	- 117	10	70
08th.	Plymouth Albion	30th	12	1	17th	530: 528	+ 2	14th	64
09.	Coventry RFC	30th	11	1	18th	637: 731	- 94	17th	63
10.	Moseley RFC	30th	12	1	17th	519: 744	- 225	8th	58
11.	Rotherham RUFC	30th	11	0	19th	591: 856	- 265	14th	58
12.	Esher RFC (P)	30th	10	0	20th	481: 850	- 369	9	49
13.	Newbury RFC	30th	8th	1	21st	497: 794	- 297	11	45
14th	Sedgley Park RUFC	30th	7th	1	22nd	497: 832	- 335	14th	44
15th	Birmingham & Solihull RFC	30th	7th	0	23	474: 696	- 222	13	41
16.	Launceston RUFC (P)	30th	8th	0	22nd	441: 906	- 465	8th	40