Beginnings: English domestic rugby union until 1972 The governing body of rugby union in England, the
Rugby Football Union (RFU), long resisted leagues as it was believed that the introduction of leagues would increase 'dirty' play and put pressure on clubs to pay their players (thereby contravening the amateur ethos). Instead, clubs arranged their own fixtures and had traditional games. The only organised tournaments were the County Cups and County Championship – the former played by clubs and the latter by County representative teams e.g.
1980- 81 Rugby Union County Championship.
The Daily Telegraph and a few local newspapers – such as the
Yorkshire Post – compiled 'pennants' based on teams' performances, but as the strength of fixture lists varied, it was at best an estimate of a team's performance throughout a season.
1972–1995: Leagues and cups In 1972 the RFU sanctioned a national knock-out cup – the RFU Club Competition, the predecessor to the
Anglo-Welsh Cup – followed first by regional merit tables and then, in the mid-1980s, by national merit tables. One of the casualties of the move to competitive leagues was the loss of some traditional games as the new fixture lists didn't allow time for all of them. The league system has evolved since its start in 1987 when the Courage Leagues were formed – a league pyramid with roughly 1,000 clubs playing in 108 leagues, each with promotion and relegation. In the
first season, clubs were expected to arrange the fixtures on mutually convenient dates. The clubs involved were
Bath,
Bristol,
Coventry,
Gloucester,
Harlequins,
Leicester,
Moseley,
Nottingham,
Orrell,
Sale,
Wasps and
Waterloo. That first season was an unqualified success, with clubs in the upper echelons of the national leagues reporting increased crowds, interest from both local backers and national companies, and higher skill levels among players exposed to regular competition. The fears that leagues would lead to greater violence on the field proved largely unfounded. By the
next season, the RFU allocated fixed Saturdays to the league season, removing the clubs' responsibility for scheduling matches. There was no home and away structure to the leagues in those early seasons, as sides played one another only once. Initially two teams,
Bath and
Leicester, proved to be head and shoulders above the rest in the Courage League, and between them dominated the top of the table. In 1994, the league structure expanded to include a full rota of home and away matches for the first time. The
1994–95 season was the first to be shown live on
Sky Sports, a relationship which continued until the 2013–14 season when
BT Sport acquired the exclusive rights in a deal which is currently scheduled to end after the 2023–24 season.
1996: The dawn of professional rugby union The league turned professional for the 1996–97 season when the first winners were
Wasps, joining Bath and Leicester as the only champions in the league's first decade. Clubs like
Saracens,
Newcastle and
Northampton were able to attract wealthy benefactors, but the professional era also had its casualties, as clubs like
West Hartlepool,
Richmond and
London Scottish were forced into administration when their backers pulled out.
2000–2002: Premiership, Championship and playoffs The start of the 2000–01 season brought with it a re-vamping of the season structure. In 2000–2001 an 8-team playoff (the Championship) was introduced. However, the team finishing top of the table at the end of the regular season was still considered English champions ("Premiership title"). Halfway through the 2001–02 season, with Leicester odds-on to win their fourth title in succession, it was controversially decided that the winners of the 8-team playoff would be crowned English champions. There was an outcry from fans and this proposal was dropped.
2003–2014: The ascendancy of the playoffs From the beginning of the 2002–03 season, a new playoff format was introduced to replace the 8-team Championship. The format required the first-placed team in the league to play the winner of a match between the second- and third-placed teams. Critically, the winner of this game (the Premiership Final) would be recognised as English champions. Although Gloucester won the league by a clear margin, they then faced a three-week wait until the final. Having lost their momentum, they were beaten by second-placed Wasps (who had defeated third-placed Northampton) in the play-offs. The playoff structure was reformatted in the 2005–06 season in which the first-placed team would play the fourth placed team in a semi-final (a
Shaughnessy playoff). Since the implementation of the playoff system, seven teams have won both the regular season and playoffs in the same year: Leicester twice in 2000–01 (the first year of the playoffs), 2008–09, 2009–10 and 2021–22
Sale Sharks in 2005–06,
Harlequins in 2011–12,
Saracens in 2015–16,
Exeter in 2019–20,
Northampton Saints in 2023–24 and
Bath in 2024–25. Of all the Premiership teams,
Wasps have made a reputation for playing the competition format to perfection, peaking at the right time to be crowned English Champions in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2008. Wasps did not lead the league standings at the end of the season in any of these years. Conversely,
Gloucester have garnered an unfortunate reputation for leading the table at the end of the regular season, only to fall short of winning the Premiership title, losing finals in 2003, 2007, and 2008. Gloucester's single victory in the playoffs, in 2002, occurred when league leaders Leicester were still considered English champions, meaning Gloucester's Championship victory was considered secondary. The 2011–12 season saw
Harlequins add their name to the trophy on their first attempt, winning 30–23 against the nine-times champions Leicester. Leicester would have to wait until 2012–13 for their 10th championship, where they defeated
Northampton in the final. The
2013–14 Aviva Premiership season saw
Northampton become the 8th different team to win the trophy. This was achieved when they defeated
Leicester Tigers in the semi-final 21–20, thus denying Leicester a 10th Consecutive Final. In the final, they defeated Saracens 24–20 with a try in the last minute of extra time to win the
2013–14 Aviva Premiership.
2014–2018: US initiatives With the future of the
Heineken Cup uncertain beyond 2013–14, due to a row between England's Premiership Rugby Limited and France's
LNR on one side and the sport's governing bodies on the other, Premiership Rugby Limited explored several moves toward expanding its brand into the
United States. In May 2013, Premiership Rugby Limited and U.S.-based RugbyLaw entered into a plan by which the two organisations were to help back a proposed U.S. professional league that could have begun play as early as 2014. The first phase of the plan was to involve two preseason exhibitions featuring an "American Barbarians" side that would combine international veterans and young American talent. The "Barbarians" were intended to play matches in August 2013 in the U.S. and London, but those plans fell through, and the matches were indefinitely delayed. In August 2013, Peter Tom, the chairman of Leicester Tigers, confirmed that discussions had taken place within Premiership Rugby Limited about the possibility of hosting selected Premiership matches in the US. The first match played in the USA was on 12 March 2016 when
London Irish were defeated by
Saracens at the
Red Bull Arena in the
New York Metropolitan Area. This match was intended to be the first of a three-year deal which would have seen London Irish play one home match each season in the US, but their relegation from the Premiership at the end of the 2015–16 season scuttled that plan. A new deal was reached with American sports marketing company
AEG in 2017 which was intended to see at least one Premiership match taken to the US for four seasons starting in 2017–18. The first match under the new deal was held on 16 September 2017, with
Newcastle Falcons taking their home fixture against Saracens to the
Talen Energy Stadium in the
Philadelphia suburb of
Chester, Pennsylvania. A previous offer to purchase a 51% majority share was rejected. The money from the investment was planned to be used to improve facilities at clubs and grow the game globally. In April 2026, Exeter Chiefs CEO, Tony Rowe, criticised the deal believing it was a mistake for the stake to be sold to CVC.
2019–20: Salary cap investigation into Saracens In March 2019, allegations emerged that
Saracens may have broken the league's
salary cap. In June, Premiership Rugby announced that they would investigate the allegations. In November 2019,
Saracens were found to have been in breach of the salary cap regulations due to failure to disclose player payments in the 2016–17, 2017–18 and 2018–19 seasons, which would have taken them over the senior player cap. They were handed a 35-point deduction for the
2019–20 season and fined £5.3 million. On 18 January 2020, Premiership Rugby announced that
Saracens would be relegated to the
RFU Championship for the
2020–21 season. Premiership Rugby CEO Darren Childs said this punishment was due to
Saracens lack of cooperation in a mid-season audit to prove compliance in the 2019–20 season. On 23 January 2020,
Lord Dyson's full report into Saracens' spending was published, it revealed that
Saracens had overspent the salary cap by £1.1m in 2016–17, £98,000 in 2017-18 and £906,000 in 2018–19. These included £923,947.63 of property investments between Nigel Wray and three unnamed
Saracens players. It also included Saracens claim that the Salary Cap was unenforceable under competition law, this defence was rejected. On 28 January 2020, Premiership Rugby applied a further 70 point deduction for the 2019–20 season to ensure
Saracens would finish bottom of the league table.
2020–2025: COVID-19, clubs going bust and six winners in six years The
COVID-19 pandemic disrupted all elite sports in England in spring 2020. The RFU initially suspended both the Premiership and Championship before eventually cancelling the Championship season. Newcastle Falcons, who topped the Championship table at the time of the season's premature end were promoted based on their playing record and would replace Saracens in the Premiership the following season. The 2019–20 Premiership Rugby season recommenced on 14 August and the final was held 24 October 2020. The disruption of the 2019–20 season meant the 2020–21 season commenced 10 weeks late on 20 November 2020 and ran over a reduced timeframe of 32 weeks (down from 42). The financial impact of the pandemic also caused the salary cap to be temporarily reduced for a maximum of 3 seasons from the 2021–22 season. A
moratorium on relegation was also approved in February 2021, meaning no teams would be relegated as a potential consequence of another team receiving more points due to games cancelled because of COVID-19. With this news it was also confirmed that the league's minimum standards criteria for promotion would be reviewed as would league structure from the 2021–22 season. On 26 September 2022, Worcester Warriors went into administration and were suspended from the league. Their upcoming fixture against
Gloucester on 1 October, was also cancelled. On 6 October, Worcester Warriors were suspended for the rest of the season, relegated from the premiership, and all past and future fixtures for that season expunged. On 17 October 2022, Wasps went into administration and were suspended from the league. Their upcoming fixture against
Sale Sharks on 18 October, was also cancelled. On 28 October, Wasps were suspended for the rest of the season, relegated from the premiership, and all past and future fixtures for that season expunged. On 6 June 2023, London Irish were suspended from the Premiership after missing a deadline to pay players and staff. Irish subsequently went into administration on 7 June. Despite ongoing financial concerns the league remained very competitive during these years. Northampton Saints defeated Bath in the
2023–24 final. This meant the league had produced five different winners of the competition in five years stretching back to the
2019-20 season with Exeter Chiefs, Harlequins, Leicester Tigers, Saracens and Northampton Saints all winning the competition. In June 2025, Bath returned to the Premiership final for a second consecutive year defeating Leicester Tigers 23–21 to secure their first title in 29 years and to make it six different winners of the tournament in as many seasons. Despite financial concerns arising for last place Newcastle Falcons, no team was promoted or relegated from the league this season.
2025–Present: PREM Rugby era and expansion model In July 2025, following the conclusion of the
2024–25 season, the league officially re-branded from Premiership Rugby to PREM Rugby with the aim of moving away from a corporate image and attracting younger fans. The announcement came alongside the news that the opening fixture of the
2025–26 season between Gloucester and Sale Sharks will take place on a Thursday night, a first for the league. The change was made as there will be no Saturday match, to avoid a clash with the
2025 Women's Rugby World Cup third-place play-off and final held at Twickenham on 27 September. In August 2025, Newcastle Falcons were renamed
Newcastle Red Bulls following a takeover by Austrian energy drink company
Red Bull. On 27 February 2026, the RFU Council voted to approve the abolition of automatic promotion and relegation between the PREM and
Champ Rugby, replacing it with a criteria-based expansion model. The change takes effect from the
2026–27 season. Under the new structure, the league will remain at 10 clubs for a minimum of three seasons. An expansion to 12 teams is planned for the 2029–30 season, with potential for further growth after. All PREM clubs will also be required to either operate or support a team in
Premiership Women's Rugby or fund a regional women's development plan; clubs that fail to comply face financial penalties. == Clubs ==