The Women's Premiership, also called the RFUW Premiership was the top level of women's

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

in England until 2017. It was formed in 1990 and was run by the

Rugby Football Union for Women The Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW) was the governing body for women's rugby union in England. In 2014 the RFUW and Rugby Football Union (RFU) combined to be one national governing body. The headquarters are at Twickenham Stadium, London. ...

. It was superseded in the 2017/18 season by

Premier 15s 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 ...

History

Women's rugby in England was initially run by the Women's Rugby Football Union on a

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

-wide basis. The Women's Premiership was formed in 1990 as the top tier of women's rugby in the British Isles. In 1994, the Rugby Football Union for Women was formed and took over the management of women's rugby in England, including the Women's Premiership, after

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

and

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

left the Women's Rugby Football Union. At the start, most of the teams in the league were University teams. Since the RFUW took over and

Professionalism Professionalism is a set of standards that an individual is expected to adhere to in a workplace, usually in order to appear serious, uniform, or respectful. What constitutes professionalism is hotly debated and varies from workplace to workplac ...

was permitted in 1996, the university teams were gradually replaced by women's clubs associated with professional and semi-professional men's clubs as they were able to give the women's team the funding to be able to compete.

Promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

and

relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

in the Women's Premiership is determined by the lowest placed team playing against the winner of the Championship 1 North-South playoff. If the Premiership team wins, there is no promotion and relegation that year. It is noted that promoted teams often fail to win during the regular league season during their first season in the Women's Premiership, including Old Albanians Ladies and Thurrock T-Birds, who were relegated in 2013 after losing to Aylesford Bulls Ladies in the 2013 playoff. During seasons that precede the

Women's Rugby World Cup The Women's Rugby World Cup is the women's rugby union world championship which is organised by World Rugby. The first Rugby World Cup for women was held in 1991, but it was not until the 1998 tournament that the tournament received official b ...

, promotion and relegation is suspended for that season. In 2014, Thurrock appealed against this ruling to the RFUW, claiming that some Women's Premiership clubs were actively attempting to block promotion and relegation in Women's Rugby World Cup years.

Premier 15s

For the 2017–18 season the RFU Council proposed to create a ''Super League'', the

with up to ten teams. The new system to be considered new and distinct from the existing Premiership. It was expected that all 8 teams from the Premiership would apply for the new league, together with several top Championship teams. Seven of the eight Premiership teams were accepted into the Super Rugby competition (Lichfield being excluded), together with

Gloucester–Hartpury Gloucester-Hartpury Women's Rugby Football Club are an English women's rugby union club based in Hartpury, Gloucestershire. They are the unified women's team of Gloucester Rugby and Hartpury University R.F.C. They were founded in 2014 and since ...

, Firwood Waterloo and

Loughborough Students (Lightning) Loughborough Lightning are a women's rugby union club based in Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. They are the Professional women's team of Loughborough Students RUFC and Loughborough University. Together with the netball team and the women ...

2013-14 Teams and Locations

Below is listed the locations of the teams that participate in the 2013-14 Women's Premiership.

Clubs Since 2003

Dates are the year the season ended. * Bristol Ladies was called Clifton Ladies RFC until 2008.

Champions

References

{{Rugby union in England

Rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

Rugby union leagues in Europe Rugby union leagues in England Women's rugby union competitions in England