Welsh Premiership
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The Welsh Premier Division, () known for sponsorship reasons as the Admiral Premiership, (''Uwch Gynghrair grŵp indigo'') is a
rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...
league in
Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
first implemented by the
Welsh Rugby Union The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU; ) is the governing body of rugby union in the country of Wales, recognised by the sport's international governing body, World Rugby. The WRU is responsible for the running of rugby in Wales, overseeing 320 member clu ...
(WRU) for the 1990–91 season.


2025–26 season

The teams are feeder clubs for the following regions: =
Cardiff Rugby Cardiff Rugby () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams. Based in Cardiff, the team play at Cardiff Arms Park. Originally formed in 1876, from 2003 to 2021 the first team was known as the Cardiff Blues before rebranding back ...
, =
Dragons A dragon is a magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in Western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depict ...
, =
Ospreys The osprey (; ''Pandion haliaetus''), historically known as sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and a wingspan of . It is ...
, =
Scarlets The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and in European Professional Club Rugby c ...
.


Table


Clubs and locations


2024–25 season

The 2024–25 Welsh Premier Division saw a much changed lineup after losing the vast majority of the teams from 2023–24 to the newly formed
Super Rygbi Cymru is a rugby union competition between clubs in Wales. It consists of 10 teams and started in September 2024. The intention of the competition is to bridge the gap for players who move between the Academies and the Regions. The new competition ...
. Merthyr won the title with 108 points. The teams are feeder clubs for the following regions: =
Cardiff Rugby Cardiff Rugby () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams. Based in Cardiff, the team play at Cardiff Arms Park. Originally formed in 1876, from 2003 to 2021 the first team was known as the Cardiff Blues before rebranding back ...
, =
Dragons A dragon is a magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in Western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depict ...
, =
Ospreys The osprey (; ''Pandion haliaetus''), historically known as sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and a wingspan of . It is ...
, =
Scarlets The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and in European Professional Club Rugby c ...
.


Table


Clubs and locations


Competition history

Ahead of the 1990–91 season, the Welsh Rugby Union announced that the top 38 clubs would play in the Heineken National League, split into four divisions with the top ten teams forming the Premier League. Each club would play each other home and away in a double round-robin format. The ten teams that were part of the inaugural Premier Division were Abertillery, Cardiff, Bridgend, Glamorgan Wanderers. Llanelli, Neath, Newbridge, Pontypool, Pontypridd and Swansea. For the 1999–2000, 2000–01 and 2001–02 seasons, it was reformatted as the Welsh-Scottish League with the addition of
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
and
Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
alongside the Welsh teams; and run jointly by the
Scottish Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; ) is the Sport governing body, governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Now marketed as Scottish Rugby, it is the second-oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league sys ...
and the
Welsh Rugby Union The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU; ) is the governing body of rugby union in the country of Wales, recognised by the sport's international governing body, World Rugby. The WRU is responsible for the running of rugby in Wales, overseeing 320 member clu ...
. Originally at the top tier of rugby in Wales, the league lost this status in 2003 with the implementation of the WRU's "Regional Rugby" plan, by which the country would be represented in top-level competitions, i.e. the Celtic League (now URC) and
Heineken Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Investec Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...
, by five (now four) regionally based sides. The clubs in the Premier Division became largely developmental sides for the regional teams. Over succeeding years the league structure was to be changed in order to strengthen the structure of the semi-pro sides feeding the regions. Under the WRU's plan, playing records and facilities will be the main criteria in determining which clubs would stay in the Premiership. In the 2005–06 season the Welsh Premier Division consisted of 16 clubs. Division One Champions Maesteg and runners-up
Glamorgan Wanderers Glamorgan Wanderers are a Welsh rugby union club based in Ely, west Cardiff in Wales. The club is located just to the north of Western Cemetery. They currently play in the WRU Admiral Championship. Glamorgan Wanderers began as the Old Monkt ...
were promoted from Division 1 to join 14 clubs who played Premiership rugby the previous season. The clubs relegated down to Division 1 were
Caerphilly Caerphilly (, ; , ) is a town and community (Wales), community in Wales. It is situated at the southern end of the Rhymney Valley and separated from the Cardiff suburbs of Lisvane and Rhiwbina by Caerphilly Mountain. It is north of Cardiff an ...
,
Llanharan Llanharan () is a village and community in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. As a community Llanharan takes in the neighbouring settlements of Bryncae, Brynna, Llanilid, Peterston-super-Montem and Ynysmaerdy. Llanharan thrived ...
and Newbridge, thus, reducing the division from 17 to 16 clubs. For the 2006–07 season, the Welsh Premier Division was reduced once more to 14 teams. The 2006–07 league was won by Neath RFC, making it three wins in three years. For the 2007–08 season, a new points system was adopted, following the same system used in the
Celtic League The Celtic League is a pan-Celtic organization, founded in 1961, that aims to promote modern Celtic identity and culture in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man – referred to as the Celtic nations; it places pa ...
, where teams earn four points for a win and two for a draw, and can earn bonus points for either scoring four tries or losing by less than seven points. The relegation rules also changed during the season, stating that if a team failed to meet ground and facility standards during the season, then that club would fall into the final place rather than the club that finished last through points. British and Irish Cup Qualification In 2009–10, the top six clubs from the 2008–09 season qualified for the new
British and Irish Cup The British and Irish Cup was an annual rugby union competition for second tier, semi-professional clubs and the reserves or developing teams from professional clubs from Great Britain and Ireland. It took place for the first time in the 2009†...
competition. A play-off system was added at the end of the season for the top eight sides to qualify for the following season's British and Irish Cup. Only six teams can qualify for this from the eight. These play-offs do not decide the League Championship, as the league leaders at the end of the regular 26 game season will be Champions. At the start of the 2010–11 season, it was announced that the Welsh Premiership title would be settled by a play-off at a neutral ground. At the end of the season, play-offs will involve the second and third placed teams meeting at a neutral venue, with the winners facing the team who finished top after the regular season in the final. Two-other play-off issues are also set to feature at the end of the campaign. The top five teams in the league will win automatic entry into the following season's British and Irish Cup with the sixth and final place decided by a play-off. This will see the teams finishing in 7th and 8th position meeting for the right to play the sixth-placed club. Promotion from Division 1 was revamped from the 2010–11 season with play-offs taking place for this too. The bottom-placed team in the Welsh Premiership was grouped with the respective division winners in Division 1 East, North and West - provided they meet the Premiership criteria. For the 2012–13 season, it was announced that the Premier Division would be reduced to 10 teams. The teams for the league would be decided on three factors: the holding of an 'A Licence' based on stadium criteria; the signing of a 'Participation Agreement'; and league results over the previous six seasons. It was announced that four clubs,
Pontypool Pontypool ( ) is a town and the administrative centre of the county borough of Torfaen, within the Historic counties of Wales, historic boundaries of Monmouthshire (historic), Monmouthshire in South Wales. , it has a population of 29,062. Locat ...
,
Tonmawr Tonmawr is a village in Neath Port Talbot county borough, south Wales. It is part of the community of Pelenna and is located around four miles east of Neath. The village is home to a rugby union team (Tonmawr RFC Tonmawr are a Welsh rugby un ...
,
Bridgend Bridgend (; or just , meaning "the end of the bridge on the Ogmore") is a town in the Bridgend County Borough of Wales, west of Cardiff and east of Swansea. The town is named after the Old Bridge, Bridgend, medieval bridge over the River Og ...
and
Carmarthen Carmarthen (, ; , 'Merlin's fort' or possibly 'Sea-town fort') is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community (Wales), community in Wales, lying on the River Towy north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. At the 2021 United Kingdom cen ...
had not achieved the required criteria to be included into the new league. However, pressure from
Ospreys The osprey (; ''Pandion haliaetus''), historically known as sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and a wingspan of . It is ...
and
Scarlets The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and in European Professional Club Rugby c ...
backers led to the league being extended to 12 teams with Bridgend and Carmarthen included. Tonmawr, citing financial reasons, opted not to take part in the new league at all and re-entered themselves into Division Six. Pontypool launched a legal challenge to avoid being the only team relegated but lost the case.Pontypool lose legal challenge
/ref> 2024-25 Welsh Premier Division will see a much changed lineup after losing the vast majority of the teams from last year's competition to the newly formed
Super Rygbi Cymru is a rugby union competition between clubs in Wales. It consists of 10 teams and started in September 2024. The intention of the competition is to bridge the gap for players who move between the Academies and the Regions. The new competition ...
.


League sponsors


Past Premier Division winners


Premier Division champions by season


1990–2000


2000–2010


2010–2020


2020–2030

* = Welsh-Scottish League winners


Premier Division wins by club

* = Cardiff RFC were leading the 2019–20 table before the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the championship was withheld. *Current members of the Premiership in Italics


See also

*
WRU Challenge Cup The WRU Challenge Cup (currently known as the WRU Premiership Cup, formally called the Welsh Rugby Union Challenge Cup, is Wales' premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout rugby union competition and is organised by the Welsh Rugby Union. A ...
*
United Rugby Championship The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...
*
British and Irish Cup The British and Irish Cup was an annual rugby union competition for second tier, semi-professional clubs and the reserves or developing teams from professional clubs from Great Britain and Ireland. It took place for the first time in the 2009†...
* List of Welsh rugby union teams * WRU National Leagues


References

{{Rugby union club leagues in Wales 2 1990 establishments in Wales Sports leagues established in 1990 Rugby union leagues in Europe
Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
Professional sports leagues in the United Kingdom