PWR Structure & Rules

PWR League

Premiership Women’s Rugby is the top-level of women’s club rugby in England, featuring the best English clubs and many top international players.

The league consists of 9 clubs: Bristol Bears, Exeter Chiefs, Gloucester Hartpury, Harlequins, Leicester Tigers, Loughborough Lightning, Sale Sharks, Saracens, Trailfinders Women. They compete in a regular season and a post-season, including Semi-Finals and a Final.

Each team plays home and away matches against every other team (16 matches per team). The points system is 4 points for a win, 2 for a draw, 1 bonus point for scoring 4 or more tries, 1 bonus point for losing by 7 or fewer points.

The teams are ranked by total points and the top 4 teams at the end of the regular season go to the post-season. The semi-finals are 1st vs 4th place and 2nd vs 3rd place, with the two winners meeting in the PWR final.

PWR Cup

The PWR Cup is a separate competition from the league and offers another chance to win silverware, outside of the league title.

All 9 PWR clubs are involved in the PWR Cup, and the matches take place before the league starts.

The teams are split into two pools, with each team playing all the others in their pool once, either home or away. The pool winners and runners-up qualify for the knockout rounds. Points are awarded using the same system as in the league.

The semi-final is the first knockout round, where the Winner of Pool A will play the Runner-up of Pool B, and the Winner of Pool B plays the Runner-up from Pool A. The two semi-finals’ winners will then progress to the final, where the winner will be decided. There is also a third-place play-off for the two losing semi-finalists.

Determining Equal Standings

Applicable to both the League and Cup

The following points shall be awarded based on the results of each Match (such points to be referred to as "League Points" to distinguish them from points scored on the field of play).

In the case of equality of League Points, positions in the table shall be determined as follows:

(i) the number of wins achieved;
(ii) if Clubs have equal League Points and equal number of wins then a Club with a larger difference between Match points “for” and Match points “against” shall be placed higher in the table than a Club with a smaller difference between Match points “for” and Match points “against”.
(iii) should Clubs have the same number of League Points, the same wins and the same Match points difference, the Club having scored more Match points “for” shall be placed higher in the table than the Club having the lesser number of Match points “for”.
(iv) if this still does not establish the positions then the Clubs involved shall be ranked according to the number of Matches won, excluding the first league Match of the season. If necessary, this process shall be extended to exclude the second Match, third Match and so on until the final positions are established.

In the semi-finals & the final