English Premiership (rugby union)
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| Country |
 England
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|---|---|
| Founded | 1987 |
| Number of teams | 12 |
| Level on pyramid | 1 |
| Relegation to | RFU Championship |
| Domestic cup(s) | Anglo-Welsh Cup |
| International cup(s) |
European Rugby Champions Cup European Rugby Challenge Cup |
| Current champions |
Saracens (2015–16) |
| Most championships | Leicester Tigers (10 titles) |
| TV partners |
BT Sport ITV (Highlights only) |
| Website | premiershiprugby.com |
 2016–17 English Premiership (rugby union)
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The English Premiership (also known as the Aviva Premiership due to sponsorship reasons) is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership consists of twelve clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby union system. Premiership clubs qualify for Europe's two main club competitions, the European Rugby Champions Cup and the European Rugby Challenge Cup. The team finishing at the bottom of the Premiership each season is relegated to the second-division RFU Championship, and the winner of the Championship is promoted to the Premiership.
The competition has been played since 1987, and has evolved into the current Premiership system. The current champions are Saracens. The most recently promoted side is Bristol, who have returned to the top flight after defeating Doncaster in the 2015-16 RFU Championship Play-Off Final.
The governing body of rugby union in England, the Rugby Football Union (RFU), long resisted leagues as it was believed that the introduction of leagues would increase 'dirty' play and put pressure on clubs to pay their players (thereby contravening the amateur ethos). Instead, clubs arranged their own friendlies and had traditional games. The only organised tournaments were the County Cups and County Championship — the former played by clubs and the latter by County representative teams. The Daily Telegraph and a few local newspapers — such as the Yorkshire Post — compiled 'pennants' based on teams' performances, but as the strength of fixture lists varied, it was at best an estimate of a team's performance throughout a season.
In 1972 the RFU sanctioned a national knock-out cup — the R.F.U. Club Competition, the predecessor to today's Anglo-Welsh Cup — followed first by regional merit tables and then, in the mid-1980s, by national merit tables. One of the casualties of the move to competitive leagues was the loss of traditional games as the new fixture lists did not allow enough time for them.
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