English Premiership

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gallagher Premiership

Current season Season 2019/20
sport Rugby union
Association Rugby Football Union (RFU)
League foundation 1987
Teams 12
Country countries EnglandEngland England
Title holder Saracens
Record champions Leicester Tigers
TV partner British Sky Broadcasting
and ESPN UK
Website premiershiprugby.com

The English Premiership is the top division of men in English rugby union . The Gallagher Premiership currently bears the name of the main sponsor Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., a company in the insurance and risk management industry . The professional league was introduced for the 1987/88 season and is organized by the English rugby association Rugby Football Union (RFU) and Premier Rugby Limited (PRL) in the form of a joint venture called England Rugby Limited (ERL). There are twelve clubs in the league.

League names

mode

In the Premiership , the four participants in the play-offs and the six participants in the European Rugby Champions Cup, the highest European cup competition, are played in the league system , in which each club competes against every other club in return matches . The English rugby champion will be determined by the play-offs at the end of regular time. All other six teams that did not qualify for the Heineken Cup automatically take part in the second European Cup competition called the Amlin Challenge Cup . The latter is relegated to the RFU Championship , which has been the second highest division below the Gallagher Premiership since 2009, and is also a pure professional league.

history

The RFU resisted the introduction of leagues for many years. She feared that this would increase the pressure on the clubs to have to pay their players and thus break the amateur ethos. Instead, the clubs organized friendly matches and held traditional encounters. The only organized tournaments in England were the County Cup and the County Championship - the former for club teams, the latter for the county teams . The Daily Telegraph and some regional newspapers such as the Yorkshire Post published lists of the performance of each team over the course of a season.

In 1972 the RFU decided to introduce a national cup competition now known as the EDF Energy Cup . Regional scoring tables followed, and finally a national scoring table in the mid-1980s. Finally, in 1987, the Courage League was introduced. In the first season, the clubs agreed the starting times among themselves. The new league system proved to be a great success, especially the teams in the upper leagues recorded higher attendance figures, greater commitment from sponsors and, due to the regular games, an increase in the level of performance. Fears that a league could lead to more violence on the field proved largely unfounded.

In the following season 1988/89 the RFU took over the season planning and set the game days. In the first few years there was no fixed structure with home and away games, as the teams only competed against each other once. It was not until 1994 that a full program was introduced, with one home game and one away game against every other team. In the 1994/95 season, Sky Sports broadcast games live on television for the first time. This collaboration continues to this day. For the 1996/97 season, the amateur league turned into a professional league. In the 2000/01 season, a semi-final, a so-called play-off, was introduced, in which the four best teams of the regular season participate.

Finances

The official match ball for the 2007/08 Guinness Premiership

Clubs in the Premiership are allowed to spend £ 2.25m per season to pay their players. By the 2004/05 season, that salary cap was £ 2 million. In addition, the Rugby Football Union pays clubs £ 30,000 in compensation for each English player, on condition that they are released from international matches. The problem, however, is that top players are worth far more than this £ 30,000 and that is why some clubs do not use their best players throughout the season in order to minimize the risk of injury.

During the 2006/07 season, 1,539,334 spectators attended the 135 championship games, which corresponds to an average of 11,402. This was more than half more than in the 2001/02 season, when the average was 7,490 spectators per game. This increase is mainly due to the success of England's national team at the 2003 World Cup .

Attendees

The following twelve clubs will play in the Gallagher Premiership in the 2019/20 season:

English Premiership 2019/20 clubs
Club founding Stadion Places City / region
Bath rugby 1865 Recreation Ground (2009)
Recreation Ground 		14,500 Bath , Somerset
Bristol Bears 1888 Ashton Gate Stadium (2012)
Ashton Gate Stadium 		27,000 Bristol , Avon
Exeter Chiefs 1871 Sandy Park (2007)
Sandy Park 		12,921 Exeter , Devon
Gloucester RFC 1873 Kingsholm Stadium (2007)
Kingsholm Stadium 		16,115 Gloucester , Gloucestershire
Harlequins 1866 Twickenham Stoop (2008)
Twickenham Stoop 		14,000 Twickenham , London
Leicester Tigers 1880 Welford Road Stadium (2010)
Welford Road Stadium 		25,849 Leicester , Leicestershire
London Irish 1898 Madejski Stadium (2006)
Madejski Stadium 		24,161 Reading , Berkshire
Northampton Saints 1880 Franklin's Gardens (2005)
Franklin's Gardens 		15,249 Northampton , Northamptonshire
Sale Sharks 1861 AJ Bell Stadium (2012)
AJ Bell Stadium 		12,000 Salford , Greater Manchester
Saracens 1876 Allianz Park (2013)
Allianz Park 		8,500 Hendon , London
Wasps 1867 Ricoh Arena (2008)
Ricoh Arena 		32,753 Coventry , West Midlands
Worcester Warriors 1871 Sixways Stadium (2009)
Sixways Stadium 		11,499 Worcester , Worcestershire

At the end of the 2018/19 season, the London Irish rose while the Newcastle Falcons were relegated to the RFU Championship .

master

Play-off finals

Traditionally, the final is played in London's Twickenham Stadium . Until the 2002/03 season, the championship was decided in league mode.

date encounter Result spectator
May 31, 2003 London Wasps - Gloucester RFC 39: 3 42,000
May 29, 2004 London Wasps - Bath Rugby 10: 6 59,500
May 14, 2005 London Wasps - Leicester Tigers 39:14 66,000
May 27, 2006 Sale Sharks - Leicester Tigers 45:20 58,000
May 12, 2007 Leicester Tigers - Gloucester RFC 44:16 59,000
May 31, 2008 London Wasps - Leicester Tigers 26:16 81,600
May 16, 2009 Leicester Tigers - London Irish 10: 9 81,601
May 29, 2010 Leicester Tigers - Saracens 33:27 81,600
May 28, 2011 Saracens - Leicester Tigers 22:18 80.016
May 26, 2012 Harlequins - Leicester Tigers 30:23 81,779
May 25, 2013 Leicester Tigers - Northampton Saints 37:17 81,703
May 31, 2014 Northampton Saints - Saracens 24:20 a.d. 81,193
May 30, 2015 Saracens - Bath Rugby 28:16 80,589
May 28, 2016 Saracens - Exeter Chiefs 28:20 76.109
May 27, 2017 Exeter Chiefs - Wasps 23:20 a.d. 79,657
May 26, 2018 Saracens - Exeter Chiefs 27:10 75.128
0June 1, 2019 Saracens - Exeter Chiefs 37:34 75,329

Audience numbers

The number of visitors increased almost continuously over the years. In the 2016/17 season, the total number exceeded the two million mark for the first time and the average was over 15,000 viewers per game.

season total cut
2002/03 1,183,972 8,518
2003/04 1,241,557 9,062
2004/05 1,481,355 10,813
2005/06 1,483,920 10,922
2006/07 1,598,734 11,842
2007/08 1,517,863 11,243
2008/09 1,671,781 12,384
2009/10 1,900,177 14,075
2010/11 1,740,751 12,894
2011/12 1,755,073 13.001
2012/13 1,684,804 12,480
2013/14 1,721,729 12,754
2014/15 1,804,914 13,370
2015/16 1,837,427 13,611
2016/17 2,033,805 15,065
2017/18 1.912.301 14,165
2018/19 1,958,402 14,507

See also

Web links

Commons : Premiership Rugby  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andrew Laughlin: ESPN grabs Guinness Premiership rights. In: digitalspy.co.uk. December 14, 2009, accessed August 30, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Attendances ( Memento of January 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  3. ↑ Attendance Table. In: rd.premiershiprugby.com. Premiership Rugby, accessed August 30, 2019 .