2000–01 Premiership Rugby

The 2000–01 English Premiership (called the Zurich Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the 14th season of the top flight of the English domestic rugby union competitions. Leicester Tigers finished top of the league for the third year in a row giving them their fifth English champions title.

This season saw the introduction of the bonus points scoring system.^[1]

Additionally, an 8 team end of season knock-out competition, the Zurich Championship was introduced, although this was not used to determine the English Champions, that being the preserve of the Zurich Premiership winners. Leicester also won the Zurich Championship in this season.

Rotherham were relegated, to be replaced by Leeds Tykes for the 2001–02 season.^[2][3]

Participating teams

Team	Stadium	Capacity	City/Area
Bath	Bath	8,200	Bath, Somerset
Bristol	Memorial Stadium	12,100	Bristol
Gloucester	Kingsholm	11,000	Gloucester, Gloucestershire
Harlequins	The Stoop	8,500	Twickenham, London
Leicester Tigers	Welford Road	16,000	Leicester, Leicestershire
London Irish	Madejski Stadium	24,161	Reading, Berkshire
London Wasps	Loftus Road	18,439	Shepherd's Bush, London
Newcastle Falcons	Kingston Park	10,000	Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear
Northampton Saints	Franklin's Gardens	10,000	Northampton, Northamptonshire
Rotherham Titans	Clifton Lane	2,500	Rotherham, South Yorkshire
Sale	Heywood Road	5,400	Sale, Greater Manchester
Saracens	Vicarage Road	22,000	Watford, Hertfordshire

Table

	Club	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points For	Points Against	Points Difference	Tries For	Tries Against	Try Bonus	Losing Bonus	Points
1	Leicester Tigers (C)	22	18	1	3	571	346	+225	60	25	7	1	82
2	London Wasps	22	16	0	6	663	428	+235	77	37	7	3	74
3	Bath	22	14	0	8	680	430	+250	72	37	9	5	70
4	Northampton Saints	22	13	0	9	518	463	+55	45	45	3	4	59
5	Saracens	22	12	0	10	589	501	+88	63	48	6	4	58
6	Newcastle Falcons	22	11	0	11	554	568	-14	57	65	7	6	57
7	Gloucester	22	10	0	12	473	526	-53	43	45	3	5	48
8	London Irish	22	10	1	11	476	576	-100	36	60	1	2	45
9	Bristol	22	9	1	12	443	492	-49	34	36	1	5	44
10	Sale Sharks	22	8	1	13	561	622	-61	56	67	6	3	43
11	Harlequins	22	7	0	15	440	538	-98	44	48	3	7	38
12	Rotherham Titans (R)	22	2	0	20	335	813	-478	29	103	1	3	12
Green background denotes qualification for the playoffs. These teams and those highlighted in blue qualified for the 2001–02 Heineken Cup. Newcastle gained a spot by virtue of winning the Powergen Cup. Harlequins gained a spot in the Heineken Cup by winning the 2000-01 European Challenge Cup.

Results

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

Week 14

Week 15

Week 16

Week 17

Week 18

Week 19

Week 20

Week 21

Zurich Championship

The top eight teams qualified for the knock-out Zurich Championship, seeded on the basis of their league finish.

Seeding

Seed	Team	Table points	Wins	Points diff
1	Leicester Tigers	82	18	+225
2	London Wasps	74	16	+235
3	Bath Rugby	70	14	+250
4	Northampton Saints	59	13	+55
5	Saracens	58	12	+88
6	Newcastle Falcons	57	11	−14
7	Gloucester	48	10	−53
8	London Irish	45	10	−100

Quarter–finals

Semi–finals

Final

Team details

Leicester Tigers Bath 15 Tim Stimpson 14 Geordan Murphy 13 Leon Lloyd 12 Pat Howard 11 Winston Stanley 10 Andy Goode 9 Austin Healey 1 Graham Rowntree 2 Dorian West 3 Darren Garforth 4 Martin Johnson (Capt) 5 Ben Kay 6 Martin Corry 7 Neil Back 8 Will Johnson Replacements: 16 Glenn Gelderbloom 17 Jamie Hamilton 18 Perry Freshwater 19 Richard Cockerill 20 Ricky Nebbett 21 Paul Gustard 22 Lewis Moody Coach: Dean Richards 15 Matt Perry 14 Iain Balshaw 13 Kevin Maggs 12 Shaun Berne 11 Tom Voyce 10 Mike Catt 9 Gareth Cooper 1 Simon Emms 2 Andrew Long 3 John Mallett 4 Mark Gabey 5 Steve Borthwick 6 Angus Gardiner 7 Ben Clarke (Capt) 8 Dan Lyle Replacements: 16 Rob Thirlby 17 Sam Cox 18 David Barnes 19 Mark Regan 20 Gavin Thomas 21 Andy Lloyd Coach:

Leading scorers

Note: Flags to the left of player names indicate national team as has been defined under World Rugby eligibility rules, or primary nationality for players who have not earned international senior caps. Players may hold one or more non-WR nationalities.

References