2000–01 Premiership Rugby

2000–01 Zurich Premiership
Countries England
Date19 August 2000 – 13 May 2001
ChampionsLeicester Tigers (5th title)
Runners-upLondon Wasps
RelegatedRotherham Titans
Matches played139
Attendance898,438
(average 6,464 per match)
Highest attendance33,500 – Leicester v Bath (13 May 2001)
Lowest attendance1,800 – Rotherham v Newcastle (10 April 2001)
Top point scorer282 – Kenny Logan (Wasps)
Top try scorer12 – Paul Sampson (Wasps)

The 2000–01 English Premiership was the fourteenth season of the top flight of the English domestic rugby union competitions, and first to be sponsored by Zurich Insurance having been sponsored for the last three seasons by Allied Dunbar. It also heralded a restructuring the English league system, with the first tier Premiership 1 being renamed as the Premiership and second tier Premiership 2 becoming National Division 1.

Leicester Tigers finished top of the league for the third year in a row giving them their fifth English champions title.

This season saw the introduction of the bonus points scoring system.

Additionally, an 8 team end of season knock-out competition, the Zurich Championship was introduced, although this was not used to determine the English Champions, that being the preserve of the Zurich Premiership winners. Leicester also won the Zurich Championship in this season.

Rotherham were relegated, to be replaced by Leeds Tykes for the 2001–02 season.