Current season, competition or edition: 2024–25 Premiership Women's Rugby | |
Sport | Rugby union |
---|---|
Founded | 2017 |
First season | 2017–18 |
Administrator | RFU |
No. of teams | 9 |
Country | England |
Most recent champion(s) | Gloucester-Hartpury (2nd title) (2023–24) |
Most titles | Saracens (3 titles) |
TV partner(s) | TNT Sports |
Level on pyramid | Level 1 |
Relegation to | No relegation |
Domestic cup(s) | Allianz Cup |
Official website | www |
Premiership Women's Rugby, officially known as Allianz Premiership Women's Rugby or The Allianz PWR, is an annual semi-professional 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 single-elimination tournament. It began play in the 2017–18 season, superseding the former 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 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 Exeter Chiefs.