New Premiership season to start with Thursday night match

Telegraph

23-07-2025

The 2025-26 Premiership season will begin on a Thursday night for the first time as Sale Sharks welcome Gloucester to Salford on September 25.
Much later in the campaign, in March, Gloucester will take on Leicester Tigers for the Slater Cup at Villa Park on the same weekend that Bristol Bears take over Principality Stadium in Cardiff to host Harlequins and Saracens tussle with Northampton Saints at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
These games will take place a fortnight after the end of the Six Nations, which should ensure the availability of as many internationals as possible.
Rebranded as Gallagher PREM, the English top tier will not feature Saturday matches in its opening round to avoid a clash with the final of the Women's World Cup on September 27 at Twickenham.
As well as Sale facing Gloucester on the Thursday night, reigning champions Bath travel to Harlequins and Newcastle Falcons meet Saracens the following evening. Sunday will see Northampton take on Exeter Chiefs as Bristol bid to beat Leicester Tigers.
Derby weekend is slated for round three between October 10-12 and Harlequins have the 17th iteration of their Christmas game at Twickenham, against Bristol, on December 20.
The final round of the regular season is set for June 6, with the play-offs over the weekend of June 12-14 and the final on June 20.
Three things to look out for
Out of the blocks on a Thursday
This is a far happier return to midweek matches than the attempt to mash two seasons into one during the Covid pandemic. It is understood that the Premiership will remain open-minded and could return to Thursday-night action if this first foray is successful, as difficult as that may prove with tight turnarounds and player-welfare commitments.
The Women's Rugby World Cup is the main reason for an early start, but Sale Sharks are apt hosts. They enjoy the Friday-night lights and any curious locals may be used to rugby league games on a Thursday anyway.
Mixing up the marquee games…
Villa Park in Birmingham, with its capacity of just over 42,000, joins the Premiership's stable of marquee grounds to host the Slater Cup between Gloucester and Leicester next March. Interestingly, it is a home game for the Cherry and Whites, despite the venue being just over 20 miles closer to Welford Road than Kingsholm.
This is partially explained by the fact that Birmingham now falls under the jurisdiction of Gloucester after the academy boundaries were redrawn, but the club is also eager to have as many eyeballs on the occasion as possible in order to maximise fundraising for motor-neurone-disease charity 4Ed in the name of Ed Slater.
Elsewhere, Bristol are hosting Harlequins in Cardiff rather than Bath as they did last term and Saracens have switched up their showdown opponents from Harlequins to Northampton Saints. These decisions are ratified after discussions with the Premiership and it probably helps the league to keep local dust-ups separate to leverage those designated derby rounds.
… with one happy coincidence
Coaches, players and league executives will all tell you that there is no let-up in intensity over the course of a Premiership campaign, and that there are no easy matches. But despite the reduction to 10 clubs lessening fixture clashes, teams must still navigate the fall-out of the Six Nations and reintegrate their internationals.
This coming season, there is a handy buffer – round 11 – between the end of the Six Nations and the weekend that will stage three marquee matches in Birmingham, London and Cardiff. That should mean that line-ups are loaded with the highest-profile players, which can only be a good thing. Telegraph Sport understands this is chiefly to do with the availability of Premier League venues, yet it has worked out well.