The Gallagher Premiership is a rugby union league, specifically the highest level of English club rugby, and one of the world’s major rugby union divisions. Currently comprised of 11 teams, the league contains some of the most famous rugby union clubs on the planet, and is a historic and high-quality competition which exhibits some of the best players and most famous fans in the sport.
Gallagher Premiership tickets are among the hottest rugby union tickets in Europe, aided by the history of the teams which take part, the quality of the players on display, and the iconic moments which have unfolded at Premiership stadia up and down England.
History
Despite rugby union’s history dating as far back as the 19th century, formal rugby union club structures are a relatively new concept in England, with centralised rankings and regular fixtures only having been properly introduced in the 1980s. Before then, rugby clubs played traditional, local, or irregular fixtures in a relatively ad hoc format. The governing body which oversees rugby in England, the Rugby Football Union, was slow to introduce a centralised national league, for fear that it would change the rugby union landscape; rugby union’s “amateur” heritage was purportedly at stake, and there were also fears of fan violence and anti-social behaviour, problems which English association football was facing in that era.
In spite of these fears, the inaugural season of the National Division One – also known as the Courage League – took place in 1987, with Leicester beating 11 other clubs to become the first-ever winners. Bath won the second season of the competition, and Wasps the third. Bath then won the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons, before Leicester won the title for a second time. In 1996, Bath won the ninth season of the English top division, which was to be its final year as an amateur venture; in 1996, the Premiership’s success and global rugby’s increased professionalisation meant that the Premiership too became a professional competition.
Since its first edition in 1987, the Premiership has changed name on numerous occasions, largely due to sponsorship purposes. Courage Brewery was the original sponsor, and companies such as Zurich Insurance, Guinness, Aviva Plc., and most recently Gallagher have lent their name to the illustrious competition.
Successful Teams
With 11 Premiership titles, Leicester Tigers is far-and-away the most successful club in the history of the Gallagher Premiership. Tigers‘ most recent Premiership win came in the 2021-2022 season, when they defeated Saracens in the Premiership final. In joint-second place on the all-time list with 6 Premierships each are Bath and Wasps, 2 clubs which were particularly successful in the early days of the league. Saracens are fourth with 5 Premierships – all won since 2010-2011 – followed by Exeter Chiefs and Harlequins, clubs which have both won the title twice each. Newcastle Falcons, Northampton Saints, and Sale Sharks have each won the Premiership once only.
Gallagher Premiership Format
The Gallagher Premiership is currently comprised of 11 teams. Generally, teams can be relegated from the Premiership if they finish the season in the bottom 1 or 2 places, and teams can also be promoted into the Premiership from the Championship (the division below), but at present, the Premiership is undergoing a restructuring process, with promotion and relegation not currently being enacted as standard.
The season takes place begins in September, and ends in June. During the regular part of the Premiership season, each team plays the others twice each, once at home, and once away from home. In a season with 11 teams, that would mean that each team plays 20 matches (10 at home, 10 away from home).
Premiership matches use usual rugby union rules: matches are 80 minutes long (made-up of a pair of 40-minute halves), and teams can score match points via tries, conversions, drop-goals, and penalties. Tries are worth 5 points, conversions are worth 2 points, and penalties and drop-goals are worth 3 points each. Throughout the Gallagher Premiership season, teams will try to accrue league points, which help them climb up the league standings. Winning a match is worth 4 league points, drawing a match is worth 2 points per team, and losing is worth 0 points. As is the case in many other rugby union competitions, bonus points are also used in the Gallagher Premiership: scoring 4 or more tries is worth 1 bonus point, and losing a match by 7 or fewer match points is also worth a bonus point, often referred to as a “losing bonus point”.
After all matches have been played, the 4 teams at the top of the Premiership table enter the play-offs, which are comprised of 2 knock-out semifinals and the Premiership final. The team which wins the final is crowned Premiership champions.
Gallagher Premiership Tickets
Tickets for Gallagher Premiership matches are sold independently by every Premiership club. Each team sells tickets for all of its home matches; as there are fewer violent fan groups at rugby matches, the vast majority of stadiums are de-segregated, and so tickets can be sold for the entire venue allocation in one go. Both home and away fans can thus purchase tickets from the home team.
Matches usually go on sale in waves, with tickets normally becoming available a few weeks before a given fixture. Matches at the beginning of the season will go on sale in the British summer, whilst those at the end of the season will go on sale in March, April, or May. Premiership final tickets often go on sale earlier than semifinal tickets, or tickets for the end of the regular season.
Bigger or more successful clubs may sell tickets at a higher price point than smaller or less successful clubs, but ticket prices are also affected by one’s position in the stadium, and the calibre of opposition the home team is playing against.
Many Gallagher Premiership matches have plenty of accessible, affordable tickets on offer however, providing rugby union fans with plenty of opportunities to catch some matches in one of the world’s most esteemed club championships.
