The Gallagher Premiership is the top level of English domestic rugby. So let’s take a look at how the competition works.
How does the Gallagher Premiership work? The Gallagher Premiership is a round robin tournament in a league format. At the end of the season, the top four teams advance to the playoffs and a winner is crowned from those playoffs.
The Gallagher Premiership might be the biggest rugby competition in England, but there are still a lot of people who are not familiar with the format of the tournament. The Gallagher Premiership is a league which is currently made up of ten teams from across England.
The league runs in a simple double round robin format. This means that each team in the league will play against every other team both at home and away. Before the season begins, there will be a draw which decides when team’s play against each other throughout the season and where the fixture takes place.
Those 18 weeks of fixtures are set to take place between October and May of the following year. One of the changes for the 2023-24 season is that there will be an eight week break in the schedule of the tournament during the Six Nations. This means that each team should have their international players for more games per season.
The winner of each game get’s four points towards their league total. If you draw a game, you get two points and if you lose a game, you get zero points. The Gallagher Premiership also has a try bonus point, given to the team that scores four or more tries in a single game. There is also a losing bonus point, given to any team who loses a game by seven points or fewer.
At the end of the season, the four teams with the most points qualify for the play-offs. The team ranked first plays against the fourth ranked team, with the second and third placed teams playing against each other in the other semi-final. The higher ranked team is the host of each semi-final.
The two semi-final winners then head to the Premiership Rugby Final, which takes place usually on either the first or second weekend of June. The winner of the Final is crowned champion of the Gallagher Premiership for that season. So the team who finishes top of the table at the end of the season is not necessarily crowned champion.
There are other important league placing details. The top eight teams in the competition qualify for the Champions Cup for the following season. For the last few years there has not been any relegation in the Gallagher Premiership, as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
But that has been changed for the 2023-24 season. Instead, the team who finished bottom of the Premiership at the end of the season will play against the team who finishes first in the Championship. The winner of this game will get the final place in the Gallagher Premiership for the following season.
In terms of the scoring during the games, it works the exact same as all other professional rugby leagues around the world. The Gallagher Premiership uses the same rugby scoring format that is set out by World Rugby and used in all major rugby competitions.
What are the rule changes for the Gallagher Premiership?
The Gallagher Premiership is constantly changing, meaning that each season there are a few different rule changes made each time.
For the 2023-24 season, relegation has been reintroduced, the salary cap has remained the same and there have been changes to the scheduling of the league.
The major rule change for the Gallagher Premiership is that relegation has been reintroduced for the first time in a few years. It is not as simple as it was before. Instead, the team who finished bottom of the Gallagher Premiership will play the team who finishes top of Championship Rugby.
This does not guarantee that a Championship team will be promoted at the end of the season. That is because the Championship team still needs to meet the criteria which the Gallagher Premiership set around stadium capacity and safety.
The 2023-24 season is the final season in the Gallagher Premiership with the current salary cap level. A temporary salary cap was introduced at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. This was designed to cut down on costs and help the league survive through the current difficult time.
Well this season looks like it will be the final one with the salary cap at the current level. It is supposed to increase for next season, but with the financial struggles that the league has gone through, there is a very good chance that the salary cap will remain the same to keep the costs down.
The only other major rule change covers the scheduling of the league format. There will now be an eight week break in the middle of the competition for the Six Nations. This is a smart change as it should allow each team to have their internationals for more games per season.
How many points do you get for winning in the Gallagher Premiership?
The Gallagher Premiership is the top level of English domestic rugby and teams are trying to win as many games as possible so that they can reach the playoffs and have a chance of being crowned champions. So how many points is a win worth?
A win is worth four points in the Gallagher Premiership. This is why team’s are trying to get as many points as possible so that they can finish as high in the table as possible. You can technically speak get five points for a win.
If a Gallagher Premiership team wins a game and scores four tries in a single game then they can take five points away from the game. That is because scoring four tries in a single game earns the team a bonus point victory with a high scoring win. It is only two points for a draw in the Gallagher Premiership and zero for a loss.