Women's Premiership

Women's Premiership

Sport	Rugby union
Instituted	1994
Country	England (RFUW)

The Women's Premiership, also called the RFUW Premiership is the top level of women's rugby union in England. It was formed in 1990 and is run by the Rugby Football Union for Women.

Women's rugby in England was initially run by the Women's Rugby Football Union on a British Isles-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, Ireland and Wales 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 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 and relegation 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, 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.

For the 2017-18 season the RFU Council proposed to create a Super League, the Women’s Super Rugby 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 three from the Championship (Gloucester-Hartpury Women, Firwood Waterloo and Loughborough Students (Lightning)).

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