The 2023–24 Premiership Women's Rugby is the seventh season of
Premiership Women's Rugby
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 ...
, the top-flight domestic
women's rugby union
Women's rugby union is a full contact team sport based on running with the ball in hand. The same laws are used in men's rugby union with the same sized pitch and same equipment. Rugby was originally a men's sport, and women's rugby has become p ...
club competition in England. Sponsored by
Allianz
Allianz ( , ) is a German multinational financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core businesses are insurance and asset management.
The company is one of the world's largest insurers and financial services groups. The ...
for the fourth consecutive season, it is the first season under the rebranded banner of Premiership Women's Rugby, succeeding six seasons under Premier 15s branding.
Teams and locations
In December 2022, the
Rugby Football Union
The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the Sports governing body, national governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the sport's international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby ...
(RFU) and Women's Premier 15 Ltd (WP15) confirmed that eight clubs had been offered a place in the 2023–24 season. Four clubs from the
2022–23
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...
season were omitted;
DMP Sharks,
Sale Sharks Women
Sale Sharks Women are a women's rugby union club based in Sale, Greater Manchester, England. They were founded in 2020 as the women's team of Premiership Rugby side Sale Sharks. They currently compete in the Premier 15s, the highest division o ...
,
University of Worcester Warriors, and
Wasps Women
Wasps Women are a women's rugby union based in Acton, London, England. They were founded in 1984 and play in the Premier 15s. They are the women's team of Wasps FC, who are affiliated to Premiership Rugby team Wasps. They play their home matches ...
. Two new clubs to the competition were named;
Trailfinders Women and
Leicester Tigers Women
Leicester Tigers Women is a women's rugby union club based in Leicester, Leicestershire, England. They are the women's team of Leicester Tigers. They were founded in 2021 and as of 2023, play in Premiership Women's Rugby.
History
The team ...
.
In February 2023, the RFU confirmed that both
Sale Sharks Women
Sale Sharks Women are a women's rugby union club based in Sale, Greater Manchester, England. They were founded in 2020 as the women's team of Premiership Rugby side Sale Sharks. They currently compete in the Premier 15s, the highest division o ...
and
Worcester Warriors Women
Worcester Warriors Women, currently known as the University of Worcester Warriors for partnership reasons, and formally known as Worcester Valkyries, are a women's rugby union club in Worcester, Worcestershire, England. They were founded in 1993, ...
had been issued with a conditional offer to join the league for the 2023–24 season, bringing the total number of teams to ten.
All nine of the ten teams competing have support from either a professional men's
Premiership or
Championship
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this system ...
side.
On 17 October 2023, the owners of
Worcester Warriors Women
Worcester Warriors Women, currently known as the University of Worcester Warriors for partnership reasons, and formally known as Worcester Valkyries, are a women's rugby union club in Worcester, Worcestershire, England. They were founded in 1993, ...
, Cube International, notified the RFU and PWR that they intended to withdraw Worcester Warriors Women from Premiership Women's Rugby and the Allianz Cup.
The regular season games involving Worcester would become bye weekends, and in the Allianz Cup, match results and player scores against Worcester were deleted from record.
Before their withdrawal, Worcester were the only independent team in the competion.
Player movements
Premiership
Table
Round-by-round progression
The grid below shows each team's progression throughout the season, indicating their points total (and league table position) at the end of every round:
Regular season
The regular season fixtures are due to play out over the course of 18 rounds, with each round consisting of five matches. The fixtures were announced on 9 August 2023.TNT Sports
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (WBD Sports) is the division of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) that is responsible for sports broadcasts on its parent company's various channels in the United States, including TBS, TNT, AT&T SportsNet, and TruTV. ...
or YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
and TikTok
TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes.
TikTok is an international version ...
.Leicester Tigers
Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby.
The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its hom ...
and Gloucester-Hartpury contested the Slater Cup at Kingsholm on 25 November 2023, and at Mattioli Woods Welford Road on 3 February 2023, in honour of former Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city l ...
and Gloucester
Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...
men's player Ed Slater
Edward Nicholas Slater (born 1 August 1988) is a former English rugby union player who played at lock.
Following a diagnosis of motor neurone disease in July 2022, Slater retired from professional rugby.
Club career
Junior career
Born in Leic ...
.Twickenham Stadium
Twickenham Stadium () in Twickenham, south-west London, England, is a rugby union stadium owned by the Rugby Football Union (RFU), English rugby union governing body, which has its headquarters there. The England national rugby union team play ...
on 30 December 2023.
Round 1
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Round 2
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Round 3
* Game rescheduled from 2 December 2023 due to a frozen pitch.
Round 4
* Game rescheduled from 9 December 2023 due to absent medical cover.
Round 5
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Round 6
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Round 7
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Round 8
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Round 9
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Round 10
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Round 11
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Round 12
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Round 13
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Round 14
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Round 15
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Round 16
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Round 17
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Round 18
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Play-offs
As in previous seasons, the top four teams in the table, following the conclusion of the regular season, contest the play-off semi-finals in a 1st vs 4th and 2nd vs 3rd format, with the higher ranking team having home advantage. The two winners of the semi-finals then meet in the final.
Semi-finals
Final
Leading scorers
Note: Flags to the left of player names indicate national team as has been defined under World Rugby
World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international rug ...
eligibility rules, or primary nationality for players who have not yet earned international senior caps. Players may hold one or more non-WR nationalities.
Most points
Source:
Most tries
Source:
Discipline
Citings/bans
* ''Note'': The cited player's club is listed in ''bold italics''.
Allianz Cup
In the Allianz Cup
The Allianz Cup was a tournament for professional female tennis players. The event, played on outdoor clay courts, was classified as a $25,000 ITF Women's Circuit tournament in its final year and was held in Sofia
Sofia ( ; bg, Ð¡Ð¾Ñ„Ð¸Ñ ...
, teams were drawn into pools of five. Each team plays every team in their pool once, home or away, as well as having one bye week.
Teams that secure the top two positions within their respective pools will advance to a playoff for the 1st to 4th rankings. The winning team from the initial bracket will move on to the final, while the losing team will compete in the 3rd place playoff. Teams finishing in third or fourth within their pools will participate in a playoff for the 4th to 8th rankings. The winner of the initial bracket will progress to the 4th place play-off, while the losing team will be part of the 6th place play-off. Teams that are last at the end of the pool stage will participate in a two-legged play-off for the 9th to 10th position, with the overall winner determined by the aggregate score.
The fixtures were announced on 9 August 2023.
Pool A
Green background means the club has qualified for the semi-finals.
Blue background means the club has qualified for the 5th/6th-place play-off.
Yellow background means the club has qualified for the 7th-9th-place play-off.
Points allocation in pool stage
* Four points are awarded for a win.
* Two points are awarded for a draw.
* A try bonus point is awarded to teams that score four or more tries in a match.
* A losing bonus point is awarded to teams that lose a match by seven or fewer points.
Round 1
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Round 2
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Round 3
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Round 4
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Pool B
Green background means the club has qualified for the semi-finals.
Blue background means the club has qualified for the 5th/6th-place play-off.
Yellow background means the club has qualified for the 7th-9th-place play-off.
Points allocation in pool stage
* Four points are awarded for a win.
* Two points are awarded for a draw.
* A try bonus point is awarded to teams that score four or more tries in a match.
* A losing bonus point is awarded to teams that lose a match by seven or fewer points.
Round 1
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Round 2
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Round 3
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Round 4
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Round 5
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Cup play-offs
7th-9th place play-off
Green background means the club is awarded 7th place in the 2023–24 Allianz Cup.
Blue background means the club is awarded 8th place in the 2023–24 Allianz Cup.
Yellow background means the club is awarded 9th place in the 2023–24 Allianz Cup.
=1st leg
=
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=2nd leg
=
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=3rd leg
=
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5th-6th place play-off
=1st leg
=
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=2nd leg
=
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1st-4th place play-off
=Cup semi-finals
=
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=Third place play-off
=
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=Cup final
=
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:2023-24 Premiership Women's Rugby
Premiership Women's Rugby
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 ...
Premiership Women's Rugby seasons