The 2014–15 Aviva Premiership was the 28th season of the top flight English domestic rugby union competition and the fifth one to be sponsored by Aviva. The reigning champions entering the season were Northampton Saints, who had claimed their first title after defeating Saracens in the 2014 final. London Welsh had been promoted as champions from the 2013–14 RFU Championship at the first attempt.
The competition was broadcast by BT Sport for the second successive season. Highlights of each weekend's games were shown on ITV.
Summary
Saracens won their second title after defeating Bath in the final at Twickenham after having finished fourth in the regular season table. London Welsh were relegated after losing all of their games. It was the second time that London Welsh have been relegated from the top flight since the leagues began and the first time since the 2012–13 Premiership Rugby season.
Twelve teams compete in the league – the top eleven teams from the previous season and London Welsh who were promoted from the 2013–14 RFU Championship after a top flight absence of one year. They replaced Worcester Warriors who were relegated after three years in the top flight.
The Premiership Rugby Sevens Series continued with the 2014 edition. In a change to the format, the series was expanded to include the four Welsh Regions.[4] As a result, the series began on 26 July 2014, at the BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park, continuing at Kingsholm, Franklin's Gardens and Kingston Park on 31 July, 1 August and 2 August 2014 respectively. The finals were on 8 August 2014 at the Twickenham Stoop. This was the first opportunity of the season for any of the teams competing in the Premiership to win a trophy.
Gloucester won the series for the second year in the row, beating Newport Gwent Dragons 12–5 in the final to become the first team to retain the title. As Gloucester have already qualified for the World Club 7s at Twickenham, the place allocated to the winner of the final was given to Harlequins, as the next best performing English club.[4][5]
Source: Premiership Rugby Rules for classification: Tiebreakers for teams tied on points: 1) Number of matches won; 2) Difference between points for and against; 3) Total number of points for; 4) Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams; 5) Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled (C) Champions; (RU) Runners-up; (SF) Losing semi-finalists; (R) Relegated Notes:
^Harlequins will also play a home game at Twickenham Stadium on 27 December 2014
^London Irish will also play a home game at Twickenham Stadium on 6 September 2014
^Northampton Saints will also play a home game at Stadium mk on 25 April 2015
^Allianz Park typically has a capacity of 10,000 but this can be raised to 15,000 with temporary seating
^On 8 October 2014, Wasps received approval to purchase a 50% interest in Ricoh Arena in Coventry and announced that they would move their home matches there starting with their Premiership match against London Irish on 21 December[3]
Fixtures for the season were announced by Premiership Rugby on 4 July[6] and, as with previous seasons, Round 1 included the annual London Double Header. Fixtures as per Premiership Rugby Match Centre. All matches following Round 9 were subject to change depending on the television picks for a given round.
This match set a world record for attendance at a domestic club rugby match.[113] This record was broken at the 2016 Top 14 final at Camp Nou in Barcelona, which drew 99,124.[114]
Kingston Park Attendance: 7,014 Referee: Thomas Foley
Play-offs
As in previous seasons, the top four teams in the Premiership table, following the conclusion of the regular season, contest the play-off semi-finals in a 1st vs 4th and 2nd vs 3rd format, with the higher ranking team having home advantage. The two winners of the semi-finals then meet in the Premiership Final at Twickenham on 30 May 2015.
The following received Player of the Month awards during the 2014–15 season, as selected by a panel of media commentators, in addition to monthly public polls.