Countries England Runners-up Exeter Chiefs Matches played 135 | Champions Saracens Relegated London Irish | |
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Date 16 October 2015 – 28 May 2016 | ||
The 2015–16 Aviva Premiership was the 29th season of the top flight of English domestic rugby union competition, and the sixth to be sponsored by Aviva. The competition began slightly later than normal, due to the 2015 Rugby World Cup taking place in England, and was broadcast by BT Sport for the third successive season. Highlights of each weekend's games were shown on ITV4.
Contents
The reigning champions entering the season were Saracens, who claimed their second title after defeating Bath in the 2014–15 final. Saracens defended their title – becoming the first team to do since Leicester Tigers in 2008–09 and 2009–10 – with a 28–20 win over the Exeter Chiefs at Twickenham. The Chiefs, who made the playoffs for the first time in their history, had the top points scorer Gareth Steenson (with 258 points), and top try scorer Thomas Waldrom (with 13 tries) in the competition.
With their title win, Saracens sealed a European–league double – having won the 2016 European Rugby Champions Cup Final a fortnight prior, against Racing 92 – the first English team to do so since Wasps in 2004. London Irish were relegated to the 2016–17 RFU Championship with a round to spare, after losing 32–25 to Harlequins. They will be replaced by 2015–16 RFU Championship winners Bristol, who beat Doncaster Knights 60–47 in the two-legged play-off final.
Salary cap
This season was the first for several significant changes to the Premiership's salary cap regulations:
In addition to the above, a standard cap provision applicable only in Rugby World Cup years gave each club a £35,000 cap credit (up from £30,000 in the last World Cup season of 2011–12) for each member of the senior squad who participated in the tournament.
Teams
Worcester Warriors, having beaten Bristol 59–58 on aggregate in the Greene King IPA Championship play-off final, replaced London Welsh, who finished last season having not won a single game.
Pre-season
The 2015 edition of the Singha Premiership Rugby Sevens was held in August. Once again, the four Welsh Regions contested a group, alongside the twelve Premiership clubs, which were split into three groups. The top two sides from each group contested the series final at the Twickenham Stoop on 28 August. The series was won by Welsh region Newport Gwent Dragons who beat Premiership side Wasps in the final.
Regular season
Fixtures for the season were announced by Premiership Rugby at 11am on 3 July 2015. Unlike previous seasons, the London Double Header would not take place in Round 1, as Twickenham Stadium was being used for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, but would instead take place during Round 5, on 28 November 2015.
One game during this season was played on foreign soil, in the United States. The London Irish v Saracens match – played in Round 16 on 12 March 2016 – took place at the Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey.
This match – originally scheduled to be held during Round 9, on 8 January 2016 – was postponed due to a European Rugby Champions Cup fixture rearrangement that occurred as a result of the Paris terrorist attacks in November 2015. It was further rescheduled from 13 April 2016, after Sale Sharks were eliminated from the European Rugby Challenge Cup.
Semi-finals
As with previous seasons, the top four teams contested the semi-finals in a 1st v 4th, 2nd v 3rd format.
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 yet earned international senior caps. Players may hold one or more non-WR nationalities.