Premiership Women’s Rugby is set for it’s ‘PWR UP’ series, which takes place ahead of the regular league season. A unique approach to the traditional pre-season fixtures, the PWR UP series sees the nine PWR clubs split into three pools of three, with each team getting two fixtures under the belts before the new campaign kicks off on Saturday October 5th.
Last season, the top flight of English women’s rugby was rebranded from Premier 15s to Premiership Women’s Rugby, with Allianz remaining as title sponsors of the competition. The inaugural season under the PWR banner was won by Gloucester-Hartpury, as the ‘Circus’ triumphed over Bristol Bears in an all-West Country final, that was appropriately hosted at Gloucester-Hartpury’s Kingsholm Stadium.
Belinda Moore, Chief Executive Officer of PWR, said: “Ahead of what promises to be another fantastic Premiership Women’s Rugby season we are playing a three-week regional warm-up series in September. This will ensure our players and clubs are ready to go for the start of the PWR season on 5 October.
“Our clubs are starting to develop some strong local rivalries and we believe this is just what our players and clubs need before the eagerly awaited 2024-25 league season kicks off.”
Gloucester-Hartpury get their title defence underway on October 6th, as they commence their campaign against Leicester Tigers. But ahead of the regular season, all nine clubs have the PWR Up Series to undergo, and brush off any cobwebs from the off-season. Here is a run-down of the 2024 PWR Up Series fixtures, as we run down the three pools.
2024 PWR UP POOLS
Pool A: Leicester Tigers, Loughborough Lightning and Sale Sharks
Pool B: Bristol Bears, Exeter Chiefs and Gloucester-Hartpury
Pool C: Harlequins, Saracens and Trailfinders Women
2024 PWR UP FIXTURES
Saturday 7 September
- 2pm – Sale Sharks v Loughborough Lightning (CorpAcq Stadium)
Sunday 8 September
- 2pm – Gloucester-Hartpury v Exeter Chiefs (Hartpury University Stadium)
- 3pm – Trailfinders Women v Harlequins (Trailfinders Sports Club)
Saturday 14 September
- Noon – Harlequins v Saracens (Twickenham Stoop)
- 12.30pm – Leicester Tigers v Sale Sharks (Mattioli Woods Welford Road Stadium)
Sunday 15 September
- 2pm – Exeter Chiefs v Bristol Bears (Sandy Park Stadium)
Saturday 21 September
- 2pm – Bristol Bears v Gloucester-Hartpury (Shaftesbury Park)
- 2pm – Saracens v Trailfinders Women (StoneX Stadium)
- 3pm – Loughborough Lightning v Leicester Tigers (cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens)