2006–07 Premiership Rugby

The 2006–07 Guinness Premiership was the 20th season of the top flight of the English domestic rugby union competitions, played between September 2006 and May 2007. It was announced during the 2005-06 season that the 2006-07 competition would end two weeks early due to the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, as England would be defending their title.^[1] At the end of the previous season, Harlequins gained promotion to this season, while the Leeds Tykes were relegated. The Champions of this season were Leicester Tigers, beating Gloucester RFC 44-16 on 12 May in the Final at Twickenham, while the Northampton Saints were relegated. Leeds returned in 2007–08, under their new name of Leeds Carnegie, after being promoted.

From the start of the season, all half-time intervals were increased from the traditional 10 minutes to 15 minutes. The move has been explained as allowing clubs to capitalise on growing capacities and maximise refreshment income.^[2]

Two of the opening games of the season were played at Twickenham, in the 2006 London Double Header.^[1]

Participating teams

Team	Stadium	Capacity	City/Area
Bath	Bath	10,600	Bath, Somerset
Bristol	Memorial Stadium[n 1]	12,100	Bristol
Gloucester	Kingsholm[n 2]	12,500	Gloucester, Gloucestershire
Harlequins	The Stoop	12,638	Twickenham, London
Leicester Tigers	Welford Road	16,815	Leicester, Leicestershire
London Irish	Madejski Stadium[n 3]	24,161	Reading, Berkshire
London Wasps	Adams Park	10,000	High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
Newcastle Falcons	Kingston Park	10,200	Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear
Northampton Saints	Franklin's Gardens	13,600	Northampton, Northamptonshire
Sale	Edgeley Park	10,852	Stockport, Greater Manchester
Saracens	Vicarage Road[n 4]	22,000	Watford, Hertfordshire
Worcester	Sixways	10,197	Worcester, Worcestershire

Notes

Table

Club	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points for	Points against	Tries for	Tries against	Try Bonus	Losing Bonus	Points
Gloucester (F)	22	15	2	5	531	404	50	41	3	4	71
Leicester Tigers* (C)	22	14	1	7	569	456	58	37	9	5	71
Bristol (SF)	22	14	1	7	398	394	43	37	3	3	64
Saracens (SF)	22	12	2	8	539	399	56	40	7	4	63
London Wasps	22	12	1	9	504	431	51	41	5	6	61
London Irish	22	12	0	10	398	407	38	42	3	2	53
Harlequins	22	10	0	12	503	438	50	46	5	6	51
Bath	22	8	2	12	428	492	36	50	2	7	45
Newcastle Falcons	22	9	0	13	435	528	49	55	2	6	44
Sale Sharks	22	8	1	13	414	500	33	44	2	6	42
Worcester Warriors	22	6	1	15	346	459	32	50	0	9	34
Northampton Saints (R)	22	6	1	15	342	499	39	52	1	6	33
Reference www.guinnesspremiership.com and BBC Sport: Updated 2007-04-28 --- Current English Leagues * Leicester were docked one point for fielding an ineligible player

If teams are level at any stage, they are ranked by: 1. number of wins 2. league points 3. match points difference 4. match points for 5. head-to-head record.

Results

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19

Rearranged fixtures

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

Play-offs

Semi-finals

Final

Team details

Gloucester Leicester Tigers FB 15 Willie Walker RW 14 Iain Balshaw OC 13 James Simpson-Daniel IC 12 Anthony Allen LW 11 Mark Foster FH 10 Ryan Lamb SH 9 Peter Richards  53' N8 8 Luke Narraway OF 7 Andy Hazell BF 6 Peter Buxton (c)  15' RL 5 Alex Brown LL 4 Will James  78' TP 3 Carlos Nieto HK 2 Olivier Azam  48' LP 1 Nick Wood  54' Replacements: HK 16 Mefin Davies  48' PR 17 Christian Califano  54' LK 18 Adam Eustace  78' FL 19 Jake Boer  15' SH 20 Rory Lawson  53' CE 21 Jake Adams FB 22 Jon Goodridge Coach: Dean Ryan FB 15 Geordan Murphy RW 14 Seru Rabeni  62' OC 13 Dan Hipkiss IC 12 Ollie Smith  57' LW 11 Alesana Tuilagi FH 10 Andy Goode SH 9 Frank Murphy  67' N8 8 Martin Corry (c) OF 7 Shane Jennings  70' BF 6 Lewis Moody RL 5 Ben Kay LL 4 Louis Deacon  56' TP 3 Julian White  67' HK 2 George Chuter  70' LP 1 Marcos Ayerza Replacements: HK 16 James Buckland  70' PR 17 Alex Moreno  67' LK 18 Leo Cullen  56' FL 19 Brett Deacon  70' SH 20 Ben Youngs  67' FH 21 Sam Vesty  57' CE 22 Tom Varndell  62' Coach: Pat Howard

Individual statistics

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 did not earn international senior caps. Players may hold one or more non-WR nationalities.

References

External links

• Official site