The Welsh Rugby Union Division One West (also called the SWALEC Division One West for sponsorship reasons) is a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

league in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

first implemented for the 1995/96 season. The league was formed in 2006 when the WRU divided the old Division One into two leagues, West and

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

Competition format and sponsorship

Competition

There are 12 clubs in the WRU Division One West. During the course of a season (which lasts from September to April) each club plays the others twice, once at their home ground and once at that of their opponents for a total of 22 games for each club, with a total of 132 games in each season. Teams receive four points for a win and two point for a draw, an additional bonus point is awarded to either team if they score four tries or more in a single match. No points are awarded for a loss though the losing team can gain a bonus point for finishing the match within seven points of the winning team. Teams are ranked by total points, then by the number of wins, then by the number of tries scored and then by their points ratio (points for, divided by points against). At the end of each season, the club which finishes top (as determined by the above criteria) is crowned as champion.

Promotion

For the 2011/12 season five clubs will be promoted to the new National Championship. Unlike past seasons, for 2011/12 the criteria for promotion is not based on the current season's results, but instead takes into account the past five seasons results. Each club is awarded a meritocracy score depending on their league placings over the past five seasons and the five clubs with the highest meritocracy scores are promoted.

Relegation

For the 2011/12 season there will be no relegation. Instead the seven clubs who are not promoted into the new National Championship via the meritocracy criteria detailed above will remain in Division One West for the 2012/13 season.

Sponsorship

In 2008 the Welsh Rugby Union announced a new sponsorship deal for the club rugby leagues with

SWALEC SWALEC was an electricity supply and distribution company in South Wales, established in 1989 following the de-regulation of the electricity supply industry in the United Kingdom. The business has seen several changes of ownership from 1996, and ...

. The sponsorship is a three-year deal that will continue until the 2010/11 season at a cost of £1 million (GBP). The leagues sponsored are the WRU Divisions one through to six. * (2002-2005)

Lloyds TSB Lloyds Bank plc is a British retail and commercial bank with branches across England and Wales. It has traditionally been considered one of the " Big Four" clearing banks. Lloyds Bank is the largest retail bank in Britain, and has an exte ...

* (2005-2008)

Asda Asda Stores Ltd. () (often styled as ASDA) is a British supermarket chain. It is headquartered in Leeds, England. The company was founded in 1949 when the Asquith family merged their retail business with the Associated Dairies company of Yorks ...

* (2008-2011)

Winners

References

{{Rugby union club leagues in Wales 3