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Scottish Premiership (rugby union)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tennent's Premiership
SportRugby union
Founded1973
No. of teams10
Country Scotland
Most recent
champion(s)		Currie Chieftains (3rd title)
Most titlesHawick (13 titles)
Level on pyramid1
Relegation toNational League Division One
Domestic cup(s)Scottish Cup
Official websitehttp://www.scottishrugby.org/

The Scottish Premiership (referred to as the Tennents Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is the highest level of amateur league competition for Scottish rugby union clubs. First held in 1973, it is the top division of the Scottish League Championship. The most recent (2024) champions are the Currie Chieftains, who are also the youngest club to win the competition. The most successful club is Hawick, who have won the competition thirteen times.

Ten clubs contest the league, with the bottom club relegated to the Scottish National League Division One and second-bottom club involved in a play-off.

The top level of club rugby in Scotland are the two professional teams – Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby – that play in the United Rugby Championship. They assign their players to the clubs below in a Pro-Draft; so that they can still play when not used by the professional sides.[1]

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Location of teams in 2023-24 Scottish Premiership

History

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Up to season 1972–73, Scotland's rugby union clubs participated in what was known as the Scottish Unofficial Championship. It provided very unbalanced competition: some clubs played more fixtures than others and some fixture lists provided stiffer opposition than others. The resulting league table at the end of each season gave a very unbalanced and difficult-to-comprehend set of results.

Starting in season 1973–74, the Scottish Rugby Union organised the full member clubs into six leagues. This suited some of the 'open' clubs but many of the older former pupils clubs found it difficult to compete successfully and were forced into going 'open' themselves to try to recruit some of the better players. Those that didn't declined. Open clubs kept their old FP or Academical name, and still played on grounds owned by the schools. In the first 14 seasons of league rugby the Division I championship was won by Hawick on ten occasions.

One consequence was soon apparent: fewer players were selected from English clubs to represent Scotland. For the first time since before the First World War, the domestic game was producing an adequate number of players of genuine international class.[citation needed] Though the SRU's administrators were often seen as backward looking,[citation needed] Scotland had a national league before England, Wales or Ireland.

Heriot's FP became the first city club to win the championship, they had already attracted "outsiders"; their leading try-scorer was Bill Gammell, a Fettesian already capped for the Scotland national rugby union team while playing for Edinburgh Wanderers. League rugby drew the crowds, and the 20 years that followed its introduction were the best in the history of Scottish club rugby.[citation needed] In that period the title of champions rarely went out of the Borders: with Hawick, Gala and Melrose enjoying long periods of ascendancy. Recently, however, the Borders domination has faded and Glasgow Hawks won the title three times in successive years between 2003 and 2004 and 2005–06.

Since the advent of the leagues, the Scottish Rugby Union and its member clubs have re-organised the competition several times, usually to change the number of teams.

The top Scottish clubs qualified to the British and Irish Cup from 2009 to 2014.

From season 2019–20 a semi-professional championship in Scotland, known as the Super 6, was introduced – its teams no longer took part in the Premiership competition, however this was changed when the Super 6 was discontinued after the 2023/24 season. The Super 6 format was intended to bridge the gap between the amateur grade and the professional United Rugby Championship teams.

A new set of dominant clubs arose after the members of the Super 6 broke off from the premiership. Currie Chieftains, Marr and a rejuvenated Hawick team became regular finishers in the playoff spots on the table from between the 2019/20 season and the present one (2023/24). All 3 sides winning a title each during that time period.

Although the Super 6 was above the Premiership in the national hierarchy and its clubs were selected directly from the existing members, from 2021 until the final season, its format was a 'closed shop' with no movement of teams between the Super 6 and the Premiership.

The 50th anniversary season of the competition was won by the Currie Chieftains, who recorded a 26-24 victory away to Hawick in May 2024. Winning their third premiership title as a result.

Competition format

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Each of the 10 clubs play each other at home and away between August and January, resulting in 18 games played by each club. Four points are awarded for a win, two for a draw and zero for a loss. Bonus points are also on offer in each game – one for scoring four or more tries and the other for the losing club finishing within seven points of the winning club.[2]

Play-off

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From season 2014–15 an end of season play-off was introduced for the top four clubs in the table. These clubs take part in a knock-out competition, with first playing third and second playing fourth in a semi-final match at the home venue of the highest finishing clubs. The winners then face each other in the final to determine the Premiership champion.

Relegation

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The 10th-placed club is relegated to Scottish National League Division One and replaced by the winners of National League Division One. The 9th-placed club takes part in a play-off match at a neutral venue with the 2nd-placed club in National League Division One.

2023-24 Clubs

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Relegated to National 1

Promoted from National 1

Team Stadium Capacity City/Area
Heriot’s Goldenacre Sports Ground 3,000 Edinburgh
Currie Malleny Park 2,000 Balerno, Edinburgh
Edinburgh Academicals Raeburn Place 5,000 Edinburgh
Glasgow Hawks Balgray 3,000 Glasgow
Hawick Mansfield Park 5,000 Hawick, Scottish Borders
Jed-Forest Riverside Park 3,500 Jedburgh, Scottish Borders
Kelso Poynder Park 3,000 Kelso, Scottish Borders
Marr Fullerton Park 4,000 Troon, Ayrshire
Musselburgh Stoneyhill 3,000 Musselburgh, East Lothian
Selkirk Philiphaugh Stadium 6,000 Selkirk, Scottish Borders

Past winners

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  2. Hawick
  3. Hawick
  4. Hawick
  5. Hawick
  6. Hawick
  7. Heriot's
  8. Gala
  9. Gala
  10. Hawick
  11. Gala
  12. Hawick
  13. Hawick
  14. Hawick
  15. Hawick
  16. Kelso
  17. Kelso
  18. Melrose
  19. Boroughmuir
  20. Melrose
  21. Melrose
  22. Melrose
  23. Stirling County
  24. Melrose
  25. Melrose
  26. Watsonians
  27. Heriot's
  28. Heriot's
  29. Hawick
  30. Hawick
  31. Boroughmuir
  32. Glasgow Hawks
  33. Glasgow Hawks
  34. Glasgow Hawks
  35. Currie
  36. Boroughmuir
  37. Ayr
  38. Currie
  39. Melrose
  40. Melrose
  41. Ayr
  42. Melrose
  43. Heriot's
  44. Heriot's
  45. Ayr
  46. Melrose
  47. Ayr
  48. Season Null and Void
  49. Cancelled
  50. Marr
  51. Hawick
  52. Currie

References

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  1. ^ "Tennent's Premiership pro player draft for 2018-19 season unveiled". 22 August 2018.
  2. ^ "NATIONAL COMPETITION RULES 2015 – 2016 (the "Rules")" (PDF). Retrieved 20 August 2015.
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