2010–11 English Premiership (rugby union)

2010–11 Aviva Premiership
Countries	England
Champions	Saracens (1st title)
Runners-up	Leicester Tigers
Relegated	Leeds Carnegie
Matches played	135
Attendance	1,740,751 (average 12,894 per match)
Top point scorer	Jimmy Gopperth (Newcastle) (230 points)
Top try scorer	Alesana Tuilagi (Leicester) (13 tries)
← 2009–10 2011–12 →

The 2010–11 Aviva Premiership was the 24th season of the top flight of the English domestic rugby union competitions and the first to be sponsored by Aviva.^[1] It began on 3 September 2010 with Sale Sharks hosting Newcastle Falcons, and the home-and-away season continued through 7 May 2011. Semi-finals were contested on the weekend of 14–15 May, and the final was held at Twickenham in London on 28 May.

This year's competition saw the Leicester Tigers attempt to defend their premiership title, after defeating Saracens in the final of last season's play-offs. The same two teams met again in the 2011 final and this time around it was Saracens who managed to win premiership glory, the first time the club did so.

Exeter Chiefs were the newcomers for this season, after having earned promotion by winning the 2009–10 RFU Championship play-offs. Exeter finished eighth, easily avoiding relegation. Leeds Carnegie suffered the drop, which was confirmed once Worcester Warriors, which had already met the RFU's requirements for promotion, won this season's edition of the Championship.

The second day of the competition hosted the seventh edition of the London Double Header, which drew a record crowd of 75,112 for this specific event.

Teams

Club	Coach	Captain	Kit Supplier	Stadium	Capacity	City/Area
Bath	Steve Meehan	Luke Watson	Puma	The Recreation Ground	12,200	Bath, Somerset
Exeter Chiefs	Rob Baxter	Tommy Hayes	Samurai	Sandy Park	10,744	Exeter, Devon
Gloucester	Bryan Redpath	Mike Tindall	RugbyTech	Kingsholm Stadium	16,500	Gloucester, Gloucestershire
Harlequins	Conor O'Shea	Chris Robshaw	KooGa	The Stoop[n 1]	14,282	Twickenham, London
Leeds Carnegie	Neil Back	Marco Wentzel	ISC	Headingley Stadium	22,250	Leeds, West Yorkshire
Leicester Tigers	Richard Cockerill	Geordan Murphy	Cotton	Welford Road	24,000	Leicester, Leicestershire
London Irish	Toby Booth	Clarke Dermody	RugbyTech	Madejski Stadium[n 2]	24,250	Reading, Berkshire
London Wasps	Shaun Edwards	Tom Rees	CCC	Adams Park[n 3]	10,516	High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire
Newcastle Falcons	Alan Tait	James Hudson	Cotton	Kingston Park	10,200	Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear
Northampton Saints	Jim Mallinder	Dylan Hartley	BURRDA	Franklin's Gardens	13,600	Northampton, Northamptonshire
Sale Sharks	Mike Brewer	Mark Cueto	Cotton	Edgeley Park[n 4]	10,852	Stockport, Greater Manchester
Saracens	Brendan Venter	Steve Borthwick	Nike	Vicarage Road[n 5]	19,920	Watford, Hertfordshire

Notes

Table

English Premiership Table
	Club	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points For	Points Against	Points Difference	Tries For	Tries Against	Try Bonus	Losing Bonus	Points
1	Leicester Tigers (F)	22	16	1	5	594	403	191	67	29	8	4	78
2	Saracens (C)	22	18	0	4	484	318	166	35	26	2	2	76
3	Gloucester (SF)	22	14	1	7	528	452	76	58	43	5	4	67
4	Northampton Saints (SF)	22	14	0	8	533	430	103	58	38	6	3	65
5	Bath	22	13	1	8	427	367	60	38	34	5	3	62
6	London Irish	22	11	0	11	523	459	64	47	41	6	4	54
7	Harlequins	22	9	2	11	482	384	98	45	26	4	8	52
8	Exeter Chiefs	22	10	0	12	428	460	-32	32	42	0	5	43[Table Notes 1]
9	London Wasps	22	9	1	12	425	497	-72	36	45	1	4	43
10	Sale Sharks	22	6	1	15	432	618	-186	34	66	1	5	32
11	Newcastle Falcons	22	4	1	17	360	553	-193	27	55	0	5	23
12	Leeds Carnegie (R)	22	4	0	18	315	590	-275	30	62	0	7	23
If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order: Number of matches won Difference between points for and against Total number of points for Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled
Green background (rows 1 to 4) are play-off places, and received berths in the 2011–12 Heineken Cup. Blue background (rows 5 to 7) are clubs that did not make the play-offs, but received Heineken Cup berths. Harlequins earned an extra Heineken Cup place by winning the Amlin Challenge Cup. As Worcester Warriors won the RFU Championship and met the requirements for promotion, Leeds Carnegie were relegated. Updated 20 May 2011 — Current English Leagues source:Premiership Rugby Notes: ↑ Exeter Chiefs deducted two points and fined £5000

Pre-Season

The inaugural edition of the Premiership Rugby Sevens Series began on 16 July 2010 at The Stoop, continued on 23 July at Welford Road and 30 July at Franklin's Gardens. This was the first opportunity of the season for any of the teams competing in the Premiership to win a trophy. The finals were held on 6 August 2010 at The Recreation Ground and the Series was won by Saracens.^[2]

Regular season

The fixture list was released on 29 June 2010.^[3]

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

Rescheduled Game (Round 10)

Round 18

Round 19

Rescheduled Games (Round 10 & 11)

Round 20

Rescheduled Game (Round 11)

Round 21

Rescheduled Game (Round 10)

Round 22

Play-offs

Semi-finals

---

Final

FB 15 Scott Hamilton  74' RW 14 Horacio Agulla OC 13 Matt Smith IC 12 Anthony Allen LW 11 Alesana Tuilagi FH 10 Toby Flood SH 9 Ben Youngs N8 8 Jordan Crane  49'  64' OF 7 Craig Newby (c)  64' BF 6 Tom Croft RL 5 George Skivington LL 4 Steve Mafi  71' TP 3 Martin Castrogiovanni  52' HK 2 George Chuter  69' LP 1 Marcos Ayerza  77' Replacements: HK 16 Rob Hawkins  69' PR 17 Boris Stankovich  77' PR 18 Dan Cole  52' LK 19 Ed Slater  71' N8 20 Thomas Waldrom  49' SH 21 James Grindal FH 22 Jeremy Staunton CE 23 Billy Twelvetrees  74' Coach: Richard Cockerill

FB 15 Alex Goode RW 14 David Strettle OC 13 Chris Wyles IC 12 Brad Barritt LW 11 James Short FH 10 Owen Farrell SH 9 Neil de Kock  49' N8 8 Ernst Joubert  30'  33' OF 7 Jacques Burger BF 6 Kelly Brown RL 5 Mouritz Botha  55' LL 4 Steve Borthwick (c) TP 3 Carlos Nieto  59' HK 2 Schalk Brits LP 1 Matt Stevens  51' Replacements: HK 16 Jamie George PR 17 Rhys Gill  51' PR 18 Petrus du Plessis  59' LK 19 Hugh Vyvyan  55' N8 20 Andy Saull  30'  33' SH 21 Richard Wigglesworth  49' CE 22 Nils Mordt WG 23 Noah Cato Coach: Brendan Venter

Total Season Attendances

Club	Home Games	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest	% Capacity
Bath	11	130,382	11,853	12,200	10,800	95%
Exeter Chiefs	11	99,379	9,034	10,522	6,026	84%
Gloucester	11	143,454	13,041	16,241	9,994	79%
Harlequins	11	201,012	18,274	74,212	10,676	87%
Leeds Carnegie	11	63,261	5,751	12,015	4,097	26%
Leicester Tigers	12	252,195	21,016	24,000	17,063	88%
London Irish	11	178,499	16,227	75,112	6,806	47%
London Wasps	11	184,317	16,756	75,112	7,186	74%
Newcastle Falcons	11	57,331	5,212	6,470	4,225	51%
Northampton Saints	11	146,940	13,358	13,498	13,209	98%
Sale Sharks	11	90,710	8,246	16,428	6,026	67%
Saracens	12	125,444	10,454	38,425	6,029	40%

Individual statistics

Top try scorers

Player	Team	Tries
Alesana Tuilagi	Leicester Tigers	13
Chris Ashton	Northampton Saints	10
Topsy Ojo	London Irish	10
Matt Banahan	Bath Rugby	8
Scott Hamilton	Leicester Tigers	7
Charlie Sharples	Gloucester Rugby	7
Manu Tuilagi	Leicester Tigers	7

^[4]

Top points scorers

Player	Team	Points
Jimmy Gopperth	Newcastle Falcons	230
Nick Evans	Harlequins	206
Dave Walder	London Wasps	206
Gareth Steenson	Exeter Chiefs	177
Stephen Myler	Northampton Saints	175
Charlie Hodgson	Sale Sharks	165
Ryan Lamb	London Irish	157

^[5]

References

External links

• 2010–11 English Premiership at ESPN
• Match Attendance

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