Premiership Rugby may be the top level of English domestic rugby, but a lot of people still don’t know where the name of the competition comes from.
Who is the Gallagher Premiership named after? The Gallagher Premiership is named after insurance company Arthur J. Gallagher and Co. who are the main sponsors of the league, having been so since the start of the 2018-19 season.
Gallagher is a massive insurance broker from the USA. They are one of the biggest insurance brokers in the world, having expanded their services worldwide since their formation. As they are an American company, Gallagher needed a way to advertise itself to the English market.
They decided to sponsor Premiership Rugby, taking over from Aviva as the title sponsor of the league from the 2018-19 season onwards. This is why Premiership Rugby is also known as the Gallagher Premiership. There are no current plans to change the name to anything other than the Gallagher Premiership.
Who is Gallagher rugby sponsor?
Rugby fans likely know Gallagher as the title sponsor of Premiership Rugby in England. But not a lot of people know what the company actually does, other than being the league’s main sponsor.
Gallagher is one of the biggest insurance brokers in the world. They were founded in Itasca in Illinois 96 years ago in 1927. The company really started its ascension from the 1990s onwards, recording huge gains over that time. During this success, they began expansion into the global market.
Their operations in the UK started to increase around the 2010s, so Gallagher were looking to expand further into the UK market. This is where the sponsorship of Premiership Rugby comes in. The firm saw it as a great opportunity to become better known in the UK market, which most would say has been successful.
The insurance broker now has branches in major UK cities like Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Cardiff as well as multiple locations in London. Their sponsorship of Premiership Rugby seems to have worked out quite well for all parties involved. This was not the first time Premiership Rugby had been sponsored by an insurance company.
Have Bath ever won the Premiership?
Bath Rugby are one of the most historic Rugby clubs in England as well as in the world. So have they had success in the Premiership.
Bath Rugby have won the Premiership six times, with their last title being in the 1995-96 season. This actually makes them the second most successful side in the competition’s history, having also finished as runners up five different times.
Bath might not quite be one of the best teams in the country anymore, but there was a period of around eight years where they were by far the most dominant side in England. All six of Bath’s Premiership titles came in an eight year span, when the league was known as the Courage League Division 1.
In the late 1980s and the early 1990s, Bath had an incredible team filled with superstar talent. England internationals like Jeremy Guscott, Richard Hill and Andy Robinson were competing against guys who were desperate to be part of this team.
In an era before professionalism, the intensity of training and sheer competition for places made this Bath side extremely special. Since this team, Bath have not been able to get back to the top of English Rugby. They have come close a few times, losing in the final of the Premiership in 2004 and in 2015.
Both of these teams were incredibly talented and were unlucky to be beaten in the final. So since then, there has not been a Bath side to win the Premiership despite all of the talent the team have had in that time.
When did Sale Sharks win the Premiership?
Sale Sharks have won Premiership Rugby just once in the competition’s history. Sale Sharks won the Premiership at the end of the 2005-06 season, defeating Leicester Tigers in the final.
In the mid-2000s, Sale Sharks had done a huge amount of excellent recruiting. Not only did they have emerging English talent, but they had also signed internationals who were contributing to the team massively. After a loss in the semi-final in the 2004-05 season, Sale were able to cruise to the final the following season.
They met England’s best team at the time, the Leicester Tigers, who had an incredibly talented squad with world cup winners like Ben Kay, Graham Rowntree and Lewis Moody. There was a huge amount of pressure on Sale as this was the first time that they reached the Premiership Rugby final.
But Sale did not play like a team under a huge amount of pressure in that final. They played a brilliantly attacking game and created an immense lead over Leicester that the Tigers had very little chance of coming back from. Tries in the first half from Mark Cueto, Magnus Lund and Oriol Ripol gave Sale a big lead.
After half-time, the boot of Charlie Hodgson helped to extend the lead. A 70th minute try from Jim Hamilton made the final 10 minutes more interesting as the Sharks lead was cut to just two scores, giving the Tigers a way back into the game.
But Sales held on and secured the victory with an 80th minute try by substitute Chris Mayor. This was the Sharks first and still only Premiership title. They came close to repeating this feat in the 2022-23 season. After a very impressive regular season, Sale defeated Leicester Tigers in the semi-final to advance to the final and face the heavily favoured Saracens.
The game was extremely back and forth for the first 50 minutes, with Sale taking a two point lead 53 minutes into the game thanks to a try from Bevan Rodd which was converted by George Ford. But Sale were not able to hold off the Saracens attack. Two tries from Saracens in the final 15 minutes meant that Sale lost the final by 10 points. So Sale Sharks still only have one Premiership Rugby title, from the 2005-06 season.