Premiership Rugby is the highest level of domestic rugby in England. Despite that, a lot of people don’t know how the league works in terms of the points system. Hopefully, after reading this it should be a little bit simpler.
What is the Premiership Rugby points system? In Premiership Rugby, it is 4 points for a win, 2 points for a draw and zero points for a loss. A bonus point is awarded if a team scores four tries in a game and another point is awarded if a team loses a match by seven points or less.
The system for Premiership Rugby scoring is a lot simpler than you realise. The basis of the system is that there are four points for a win, two points for a draw and zero points for a loss. This is the standard system used in most rugby leagues around the world and makes wins more crucial than in a sport like football where a win is worth three points.
Draws being a lot rarer in rugby means they are worth two points and there is also another major difference between the scoring in football and in rugby and that is the two bonus points available.
What are the Premiership Rugby Bonus Points?
In Premiership Rugby, there are two ways that a team can get bonus points outside of the points awarded for winning or drawing a game.
The first is that a team is given a bonus point when they score four tries in a single game. This is put in place to encourage teams to be more attacking and rewards teams that play exciting rugby with a lot of tries. It is something that teams strive for when they get close to it and makes the end of games a lot more exciting. Any team can get this bonus point no matter the result.
The other bonus point is only available to a losing team. If a team loses by seven points or fewer they are awarded a bonus point. This is to reward teams who make a game competitive and keep the game close until the end. It also means that a team that loses a game can still get two points if they get both bonus points.
The bonus point system means that a winning team can get a maximum of five points and a minimum of four points. A team that draws can get a maximum of three points and a minimum of two points. A team that loses can get either 0,1 or 2 points depending on how many bonus points they can get.
French Rugby Bonus Point System
The Top 14 and Rugby Pro D2 are the two professional rugby leagues in France that play Rugby Union. They have slightly different bonus point rules to the standard system.
In France, a bonus point is awarded for a team losing by five or fewer points. This is very similar to the standard system except the margin is seven points. It is the other bonus point rule which is the major difference.
A team can also get a bonus point if they win while scoring at least three more tries than an opponent. This is a benefit for teams winning big over the opposition. The standard system awards a bonus point for scoring four tries in a game no matter the result. The system used in France means that a losing team cannot pick up two bonus points in the same game and also means neither team can get a bonus point in a draw.
How many points do you get for winning 6 Nations?
The Six Nations Championship has a different scoring system to others but not massively. The major difference is that the team who wins the Grand Slam is awarded an additional three bonus points.
This may seem strange but there is a lot of reasoning behind it. The extra bonus points are to make sure that the team that wins the Grand Slam is also the team that wins the Six Nations Championship. It was introduced as the team that goes undefeated in the competition should be the winning team.
We saw that happen in the 2022 Six Nations and you could see its impact. France were awarded three extra bonus points for winning the Grand Slam which means that Ireland could not catch them despite Ireland picking up five bonus points across their five games, securing the Six Nations Trophy for France.
Can you win the Grand Slam and lose the Six Nations?
In the past, a team could potentially have won the Grand Slam and still not won the Six Nations Championship despite winning every game. This has not happened in the history of the Six Nations but due to the two bonus points on offer every game, it mathematically could have been possible.
That was before the Six Nations introduced a rule that stated if a team wins the Grand Slam they are awarded 3 bonus points. This means teams will automatically win the Six Nations if they win the Grand Slam.
If a team wins the Grand Slam the minimum number of points they would be on would be 23 as this is five wins and three bonus points. No team can get higher than 22 points if they lose a game and so It means if a team wins the Grand Slam then they cannot lose the Six Nations due to the additional three bonus points awarded for winning the Grand Slam.
How do you get three points in rugby?
As teams that win are given four points it is incredibly rare for a team to finish a league game earning three points but this is still possible.
A team gets three points firstly through drawing a game which gives them two points. The only way they can get to three points is if a team draws a game and scores at least four tries in that same game. That is the only way you can get three points from a game.
This is not the case in France as the try bonus point is only awarded if you win and score three more tries than your opponent, meaning it is impossible for a team to get three points in French Rugby.