PWR Preview 2025/26
The incredible 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup has been and gone, and with that, here in England, all eyes turn to the 2025/26 PWR season and we here at Women’s Rugby Roadmap have got everything you need to know going into the new season!
What is the PWR?
The PWR (Premiership Women’s Rugby) is the elite club rugby competition in England, and in many people’s opinion, the elite women’s club rugby competition in the world. It consists of nine teams, Gloucester Hartpury, Saracens, Harlequins, Bristol Bears, Exeter Chiefs, Loughborough Lightning, Trailfinders, Leicester Tigers and Sale Sharks. The 2025/26 season starts on the 24th October and run until the grand final on the weekend of 27/28th June 2026.
how does it work?
The league consists of two segments. The regular season, and the knockout playoffs.
The Regular Season: During the main season, each team plays every other team twice, once at home and once away, giving them a sixteen game regular season. During the regular season teams are awarded four competition points for winning and two competition points for a draw. Bonus points are awarded if a team scores four or more tries in one game, or if they lose a game by seven points or less.
The Knockouts: At the end of that regular season the top four teams go into the knockout playoff semi finals. The team that finishes first plays the team that finishes fourth and the team that finishes second plays the team that finished third. The winners of those two semi finals then face off in The PWR final with the winner being crowned PWR champions.
who are the teams?
Gloucester-Hartpury
Last Season Finish: 1st (Champions)
Star Players: Zoe Aldcroft & Alex Matthews
Every sports league has THE team, currently, Gloucester Hartpury (or The Circus as they are more commonly known) are THE team in The PWR. The were crowned champions of the 2024/25 season to signify a historic ‘threepeat’ being the first team in PWR history to win three titles in a row. This team is stacked with international talent, having had twenty five players at the 2025 RWC. However, this season, The Circus has a new conductor. Former head coach Sean Lynne left his role at the end of the 2024/25 season to take the head coach job at Wales and his former assistant coach, Dan Murphy has the unenviable task of filling his shoes. The question is, does The Circus have a next act in them, can this star studded squad make it four in a row? You’d be a brave person to bet against them!
Saracens
Last Season Finish: 2nd
Star Players: Sophie de Goede & Jess Breach
A powerhouse of The PWR with three titles to their name, Saracens always mean business. A squad boasting an enormous amount of talent including world player of the year Sophie de Goede who leads a strong contingent of nine Canadian stars. They fell at the final hurdle last season losing in the final, but as head coach Alex Austenberry pointed out after the final last season, every time they’ve lost a final previously, they’ve always come back and won the competition the season after, no doubt they’ll be aiming for the exact same response this season.
Harlequins
Last Season Finish: 3rd
Star Players: Ellie Kildunne & Aoife Wafer
The only other team who have tasted PWR glory having won one title back in 2021, Quins then had a few tough seasons before having something of a renaissance last year under new head coach Ross Chisholm. The women in the famous quarters will be coming into this season full of confidence having retained and recruited brilliantly having a squad that boasts players such as 2024 world player of the year Ellie Kildunne and 2025 Six Nations player of the tournament, Irish powerhouse Aoife Wafer. Quins are a club that don’t enjoy being out of the spotlight, expect this group to be feeling that five years without a title is plenty long enough!
Bristol Bears
Last Season Finish: 4th
Star Players: Hannah Botterman & Sarah Bern
Forever the bridesmaid but never the bride comes to mind when thinking about Bristol Bears and The PWR. In the past three seasons they have lost two semi finals and one final, all in agonising fashion. They have a new head coach this year in Scott Lawson but still expect a dominant set piece and exciting brand of rugby from the league’s great entertainers, never afraid to run the ball, no matter where they are, it is never boring when you’re in ‘Bear Country’, that’s for sure.
Exeter Chiefs
Last Season Finish: 5th
Star Players: Alex Tessier & Maddie Feaunati
Another team that have got close to tasting PWR success but not quite made it in the last few seasons are Exeter Chiefs having lost in both a semi final and final over the past three seasons. Since they joined the league they have only had one head coach, Susie Appleby, that was until this season when Chiefs moved Steve Salvin into the interim head coach role. Whether this move is one that will bring success is yet to be seen, but one thing is for sure, expect to see a different Chiefs team this season that any we have seen before.
Loughborough Lightning
Last Season Finish: 6th
Star Players: Sadia Kabeya & Alev Kelter
Playing under the professional sports ‘Lightning’ franchise of world renowned Loughborough University, Lightning pride themselves on showcasing and developing the best of young English talent in the country. Always knocking on the door of the top four and always a tough side to beat, will this season be the one that Lightning finally make that jump into The PWR top four?
Trailfinders
Last Season Finish: 7th
Star Players: Meg Jones & Alana Bremner
Going into their third season in The PWR, Trailfinders have had a very busy, and arguably the most impressive, off season of any of The PWR clubs. A host of big names have found their way to West London including Black Ferns Alana Bremner & Georgia Ponsonby, Scottish stars Rachel Malcolm, Emma Wassel & Fran McGhie and 2024 and 2025 PWR player of the season, Red Rose, Meg Jones. With all this additional fire power and immense backing from the club, don’t be surprised to see Trailfinders making an assault on the top four this season.
Leicester Tigers
Last Season Finish: 8th
Star Players: Tess Feury & Emily Henrich
A huge summer of change at Welford Road on both the playing and staffing sides sees a very new look Leicester Tigers this season. A rather young and unexperienced playing group, they will be hoping that some tough lessons have been learned during their cup campaign in order to improve their competitiveness heading into the 2025/26 season.
Sale Sharks
Last Season Finish: 9th
Star Players: Amy Cokayne & Holly Aitchison
Two seasons with back to back bottom place finishes brought wholesale changes for The PWR’s Northern club this off season. New head coach Tom Hudson brought with him a new look coaching team and the Sharks added sixteen new faces to their playing squad. A positive cup campaign which saw them win twice as many competitive fixtures as they did in the entirety of last season has laid the foundations for what the Sharks will hope is finally the season they make their way off the foot of The PWR table.
