The Premiership is the top level of rugby in England and there have been some very successful teams in the history of the competition. However, one team has remained by far the most successful in the Premiership.
Who has won the most Rugby Premierships? Leicester Tigers have won the most Premiership titles, winning eleven in total. Bath and Wasps are tied in second with six titles.
Leicester are by far the most successful team in the Premiership. They have eleven titles in total which is almost double the amount of Bath and Wasps who are in second with six titles. The Tigers have had spells of dominance in the Premiership. Their team of the 2000s won multiple championships. Leicester are also the current Premiership champions.
Leicester’s first title came in the very first time that Rugby had a national league in England. The Courage League season of 1987-88 was the first where Leicester had the chance to win the Premiership. They were successful in that bid, finishing top of the table having only lost one game on the season.
After a spell of Bath dominance, Leicester returned to the top of the Premiership in 1994-95 when they finished four points ahead of Bath. Leicester went undefeated against Bath in their two games which was a huge reason for Leicester winning the championship. Leicester won the title in 1998-99, the first time they won the title when it was known as the Premiership.
This began the Leicester team of the late 1990s and 2000s. The Tigers won four straight titles from 1999 to 2002. This is considered one of the best teams in English rugby history and featured England legends like Neil Back, Martin Johnson, Dorian West, Graham Rowntree and Ben Kay.
This team began to age out in the 2000s but Leicester found another incredibly successful team. The Tigers reached the Premiership Final nine times in a row from 2005 to 2013 and this team is looked at as one of the best in English Rugby history. They won the final in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2013.
They were pushed forward by some of the best players that the Premiership has ever seen. Martin Castrogiovanni and Alesana Tuilagi were two of the scariest players the Premiership has ever seen and were incredibly difficult to stop. Leicester had a solid 9-10 partnership with Ben Youngs and Toby Flood. Their forward pack was incredibly strong.
This Leicester team could not continue the success despite reaching the Premiership semi-final four years in a row. The team were almost relegated in the 2018-19 season and the 2019-20 season but just about remained in the Premiership. They were building a new team that could challenge for the title and were aiming for an eleventh Premiership title.
This eleventh title came in the 2021-22 season. This new team was spurred on by Ellis Genge, Freddie Steward and Ollie Chessum and finished the regular season top of the table. After cruising through the semi-final, Leicester made their way to the final once again.
It was an incredibly tight affair, despite Leicester racing out to 12 points in the first 35 minutes. Leicester struggled to score after that and Saracens were able to put the pressure on with penalties. Owen Farrell’s 76th-minute kick levelled the score at 12-12 with just minutes to play.
However, Leicester were able to get themselves into a good position to attack. Replacement Freddie Burns had been put into a much bigger role when starting fly-half George Ford tore his Achilles in the 23rd minute of the Premiership final. Burns had converted one of the two try’s that Leicester scored to help build those points up in the first half.
When Leicester was piling on the pressure, Burns dropped back into some space and slotted the most clutch drop goal of his life to put Leicester ahead with seconds remaining. Leicester were just about able to handle the restart and send the ball into touch, claiming their eleventh Premiership Rugby title in stunning fashion.
How many times have Wasps won the Premiership?
Despite recently being placed into administration, Wasps are the second most successful side in terms of Premiership Rugby titles. Wasps have won six Premiership titles in their history, although they have won a title since 2008 despite going to two finals since then.
The team’s success started very early on in the first few years of the Premiership. Wasps won their first league title in the 1989-90 season, long before rugby turned professional. When it did become professional, Wasps’ success continued with another title coming in 1997.
The 2000s are where Wasps really found the majority of their success. This team of the 2000s actually never finished top of the table, but benefitted from the fact that the Premiership introduced the playoff system that allowed them five trips to the final in the 2000s.
The Wasps team of the 2000s is seen as one of the best teams in Premiership history, coached by legendary Wales and British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland. Gatland also employed Shaun Edwards as the teams’ defence coach from 2001-2005 before he became the head coach when Gatland returned to New Zealand.
Under Gatland, the Wasps team won three straight Premiership titles, with two of those finals wins being dominating performances against the team that had finished top of the table. Wasps were able to defeat the team that finished top of the table in all three of those years.
The team featured countless superstars, but their back row was truly special. Lawrence Dallaglio, Joe Worsley and Paul Volley are all Premiership legends and formed one of the scariest back rows in English Premiership history. Up front, the team relied on the power of Trevor Leota as well as Wasps legend Tim Payne.
After three titles in a row, Warren Gatland left the side in the hands of Shaun Edwards. Edwards could not coach this team to the same success, but Wasps did win their sixth Premiership title in 2008, this time down to newcomers like Raphael Ibanez, James Haskell, Tom Rees and Phil Vickery, with Dallaglio still as captain.
Since then, Wasps have been to two more Premiership finals in 2017 and 2020, however, they lost both of those games and so have failed to add to their trophy cabinet in the Premiership since 2008.