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2008–09 Guinness Premiership
Countries	England
Champions	Leicester Tigers (8th title)
Runners-up	London Irish
Relegated	Bristol
Matches played	135
Attendance	1,671,781 (average 12,384 per match)
Top point scorer	Glen Jackson (239 points)
Top try scorer	Joe Maddock (11 tries)
← 2007–08 2009–10 →

The 2008–09 Guinness Premiership was the 22nd season of the top flight of the English domestic rugby union competitions, played between September 2008 and May 2009. Round 1 included the London Double Header at Twickenham, between the four London teams.

This season saw the introduction of the controversial ELVs, although only 13 of the rules were used, as opposed to the 30 that were trialled in the Super 14.

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The previous season

Northampton Saints gained promotion to the league this season by finishing top of the National Division One, taking the place of Leeds Carnegie who were relegated. In 2007–2008, Gloucester RFC finished top of the league but were beaten by Leicester Tigers in the semi-finals. London Wasps went on to beat Leicester Tigers 26–16 in the final.

Season synopsis

Leicester Tigers finished top of the league table, then were crowned Champions after defeating Bath 24–10 in the semi-final and London Irish 10–9 in the final at Twickenham.

Going into the season, the top six clubs were all assured of berths in the 2009–10 Heineken Cup. By advancing to the final of the 2008–09 competition, Leicester secured a seventh place for England.^[1] The four Premiership semi-finalists—Leicester, Harlequins, London Irish, and Bath—plus Sale Sharks and Gloucester secured Heineken Cup berths. The seventh berth was secured by Northampton Saints when they defeated French side Bourgoin in the European Challenge Cup final on 22 May. The remaining clubs that will compete in the 2009–10 Premiership will compete in the 2009–10 Challenge Cup.

The club that finishes bottom of the table is relegated and replaced by the club that tops the second-level National Division One. This season, Bristol were relegated, to be replaced by Leeds Carnegie, which won promotion at the first opportunity.

Teams

Team	Stadium	Capacity	City/Area
Bath	Recreation Ground	10,600	Bath, Somerset
Bristol	Memorial Stadium	12,100	Bristol, Avon
Gloucester	Kingsholm Stadium	16,500	Gloucester, Gloucestershire
Harlequins	Twickenham Stoop[n 1]	12,638	Twickenham, London
Leicester Tigers	Welford Road[n 2]	17,500	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 Sharks	Edgeley Park	10,852	Stockport, Greater Manchester
Saracens	Vicarage Road[n 4]	19,920	Watford, Hertfordshire
Worcester Warriors	Sixways	12,068	Worcester, Worcestershire

Notes

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	15	1	6	582	401	+181	62	40	5	4	71
2	Harlequins (SF)	22	14	1	7	519	387	+132	60	36	5	3	66
3	London Irish (F)	22	12	1	9	551	386	+165	64	36	7	9	66
4	Bath (SF)	22	13	2	7	539	441	+98	58	48	4	5	65
5	Sale Sharks	22	13	0	9	447	410	+37	44	36	5	5	61*
6	Gloucester	22	12	0	10	435	448	−13	43	44	5	4	57
7	London Wasps	22	11	0	11	431	416	+15	33	42	2	7	53
8	Northampton Saints	22	10	1	11	443	434	+9	41	40	2	5	49
9	Saracens	22	9	0	13	437	447	−10	38	38	3	8	47
10	Newcastle Falcons	22	9	1	12	362	456	−94	38	43	2	4	44
11	Worcester Warriors	22	7	2	13	348	530	−182	30	64	0	2	34
12	Bristol (R)	22	2	1	19	299	637	−338	33	77	1	6	17
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 are play-off places, and receive berths in the 2009–10 Heineken Cup. Blue background are clubs that do not make the play-offs, but will receive Heineken Cup berths. Northampton Saints received a Heineken Cup berth by winning the European Challenge Cup. Pink background is the relegation place. Reference www.guinnesspremiership.com: Updated 26 April 2009 --- Current English Leagues
* Sale Sharks deducted one point for fielding an ineligible player

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

Rearranged fixtures

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

FB 15 Geordan Murphy (c) RW 14 Scott Hamilton OC 13 Ayoola Erinle IC 12 Dan Hipkiss LW 11 Johne Murphy  20' FH 10 Sam Vesty SH 9 Julien Dupuy N8 8 Jordan Crane OF 7 Ben Woods  59' BF 6 Craig Newby RL 5 Ben Kay LL 4 Tom Croft TP 3 Julian White  74' HK 2 George Chuter  57' LP 1 Marcos Ayerza Replacements: HK 16 Benjamin Kayser  57' PR 17 Dan Cole  74' LK 18 Louis Deacon FL 19 Lewis Moody  59' SH 20 Harry Ellis WG 21 Matt Smith  20' WG 22 Tom Varndell Coach: Richard Cockerill

FB 15 Peter Hewat  62' RW 14 Adam Thompstone  40' OC 13 Delon Armitage IC 12 Seilala Mapusua LW 11 Sailosi Tagicakibau FH 10 Mike Catt SH 9 Paul Hodgson N8 8 Chris Hala'ufia OF 7 Steffon Armitage BF 6 Declan Danaher  40' RL 5 Bob Casey (c) LL 4 James Hudson TP 3 Richard Skuse  63' HK 2 Danie Coetzee  71' LP 1 Clarke Dermody  73' Replacements: PR 16 Alex Corbisiero  63' HK 17 James Buckland  71' PR 18 Gary Johnson  73' FL 19 Richard Thorpe  40' CE 20 Elvis Seveali'i  62' SH 21 Peter Richards FB 22 Tom Homer  40' Coach: Toby Booth

Total Season Attendances

Club	Home Games	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest	% Capacity
Bath	11	116,600	10,600	10,600	10,600	100%
Bristol	11	82,488	7,499	11,845	5,005	62%
Gloucester	11	156,366	14,215	16,500	12,260	86%
Harlequins	12	180,373	15,031	50,000	9,497	91%
Leicester Tigers	12	209,756	17,480	18,816	16,328	92%
London Irish	11	165,925	15,084	52,087	7,563	48%
London Wasps	11	102,415	9,310	10,000	7,668	93%
Newcastle Falcons	11	67,949	6,177	7,804	4,620	61%
Northampton Saints	11	145,751	13,250	13,582	12,908	97%
Sale Sharks	11	100,422	9,129	10,841	7,602	84%
Saracens	11	148,127	13,466	52,087	5,881	50%
Worcester Warriors	11	114,008	10,364	12,024	9,222	86%

Top scorers

Points	Name	Club	Tries	Con	Pen	Drop
239	Glen Jackson	Saracens	1	18	62	4
212	Butch James	Bath Rugby	2	35	44	0
190	Charlie Hodgson	Sale Sharks	5	24	35	4
156	Stephen Myler	Northampton Saints	0	18	38	2
146	Peter Hewat	London Irish	3	19	30	1
146	Danny Cipriani	London Wasps	1	12	38	1
127	Nick Evans	Harlequins	2	12	30	1
126	Toby Flood	Leicester Tigers	4	14	26	0
125	Olly Barkley	Gloucester Rugby	1	6	36	0
112	Tom May	Newcastle Falcons	5	15	18	1

Top try scorers

Pos	Player	Team	Tries
1	Joe Maddock	Bath Rugby	11
2	Mark Cueto	Sale Sharks	9
	David Lemi	Bristol
	Ugo Monye	Harlequins
	Johne Murphy	Leicester Tigers
6	Iain Balshaw	Gloucester Rugby	7
	Mike Brown	Harlequins
	Paul Diggin	Northampton Saints
	Olly Morgan	Gloucester Rugby
	Lee Robinson	Bristol
	Adam Thompstone	London Irish

Notes

External links

• Official site


• 
  Match Attendance figure^{[permanent dead link]}
  

v t e Rugby union schedule for 2008
Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
H. Cup	Six Nations Championship		Heineken Cup		Mid-Year Tests				H. Cup	End of year Int'ls	H. Cup
Guinness Premiership								Guinness Premiership
Celtic League								Celtic League
Top 14							Top 14
			Shute Shield
					Currie Cup
Sevens											Sevens
			Pacific Rugby Cup		Churchill Cup	Air New Zealand Cup
	Super 14				Pacific Nations Cup	Tri Nations

v t e Rugby union schedule for 2009
Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
H. Cup	Six Nations Championship		Heineken Cup		Mid-Year Tests				H. Cup	End of year Int'ls	H. Cup
				British & Irish Lions Tour
English Premiership								English Premiership
Celtic League								Celtic League
Top 14							Top 14
Top League							Top League
			Shute Shield
						Currie Cup
Sevens											Sevens
		World Cup Sevens	Pacific Rugby Cup		Churchill Cup	Air New Zealand Cup
	Super 14				Pacific Nations Cup	Tri Nations