Rugby Premier League


Professional Rugby Premier League is the premier rugby union competition in Russia which is active since 1992. The first Russian championship, which succeeded the Soviet Championship, was played in 1992 as Superleague and kept the name until 2004 when it was rebranded as the Professional League. Each club plays each opponent twice; four points are awarded for a win, two for a draw, and no points are given for a defeat. A similar points system is used by most of the club competitions. The top four clubs proceed to the play-offs.

History

The founding of the league coincided with a period of rapid change for Russian rugby, and the format has differed nearly every season since 2005 a year after the Russian Superleague was re-formed.
In 2007, Yug-Krasnodar were admitted to the competition, increasing the league's size to eight teams. For 2008 several lower division clubs were admitted, with a total of 14 teams split into three conferences based on geography. Many of elevated clubs were semiprofessional or even amateur in nature, which lead a lack of competitive balance. The average attendance that season was 4285.
2010 saw another change of format. Gone was the East-West divide, culminating in the formation of a 'Super Group'. VVA, Krasny Yar, Enisey-STM, Slava Moscow, RC Novokuznetsk and Imperia-Dynamo are joined by Fili Moscow and Spartak GM in a straight home-and-away league format. The Rugby Union of Russia were reluctant to make any changes in 2011, a World Cup year.

Current Teams

Geographic Locations

Information

League Honour Board

TeamNumber of Titles
VVA17
Krasny Yar12
Enisei-STM10
Fili Moscow5
Dynamo Moscow3
RC AIA Kutaisi3
MVTU2
Slava Moscow2
RC Aviator Kiev1
RC Lokomotiv Moscow1

Progress of the clubs