Guinness Premiership

The Guinness Premiership is the premier club competition in Rugby Union in England. It is linked to the other leagues in England so there is a system of relegation and promotion from the RFU Championship. The current champions are Leicester Tigers and Leeds Carnegie are the newly promoted side. There are currently twelve teams competing in this Guinness Premiership season.

The Guinness Premiership runs from September until May and there are 22 matches per season. Points are awarded for winning (4 points), drawing (2 points) and one bonus point is awarded to teams for losing a match by seven points or fewer or for scoring four or more tries in a game.

At the end of the regular season the top four teams in the table enter the semi-finals in a straight knock-out tournament to determine the league champion. The team that finishes top of the table in the regular season plays the fourth placed side at home in the semi-final and the club finishing second has a home semi-final against the third placed side. The championship final is always played at Twickenham stadium, England’s national Rugby Union arena.

In the Premiership era the play-offs have had different standings in the season. In the first two seasons of the league (2000/01 and 2001/02) the league championship was awarded to the side that finished top of the league and the championship final winner was considered secondary. As of the 2003/03 season the league championship crown was given to the winner of the play-offs.

The most successful side in Premiership history are the Leicester Tigers and London Wasps who both have four championships each. London Wasps have been most successful since the play-off championship gained importance. In fact, all of their championship wins have come from play-off final wins when they didn’t finish top of the league in the regular season.

The most unfortunate team on the other hand is Gloucester, they won the play-off final in the 2001/02 season when the team finishing top of the league won the championships and they also finished top of the league in the 2006/07 and 2007/08 season and didn’t go on to claim victory in the play-offs.

Bookmakers in the UK offer prices on individual Guinness Premiership matches, the winner of the play-offs and the regular season winner. Other bets are also available. Current favourites for the play-offs are Leicester Tigers, closely followed by London Irish and Northampton Saints.

Guinness Premiership betting