The 2000–01 English Premiership (called the Zurich Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the 14th season of the top flight of the English domestic rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 competitions. 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

Rugby union bonus points system

The Rugby union bonus points system is a method of deciding table points from a rugby union match. It was implemented in order to encourage attacking play throughout a match, to discourage repetitive goal-kicking, and to reward teams for "coming close" in losing efforts...

.

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 replace by Leeds Tyke for the 2001-02 season.

Table

55

Club	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points For	Points Against	Points Difference	Tries For	Tries Against	Try Bonus	Losing Bonus	Points
1	Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers is an English rugby union club that plays in the Aviva Premiership.Leicester are the most successful English club since the introduction of league rugby in 1987, a record 9 times English champions - 3 more than either Bath or Wasps, the last of which was in 2010...  (C)	22	18	1	3	571	346	+225	60	25	7	1	82
2	London Wasps London Wasps London Wasps is an English professional rugby union team. The men's first team, which forms London Wasps, was derived from Wasps Football Club who were formed in 1867 at the now defunct Eton and Middlesex Tavern in North London, at the turn of professionalism in 1999...	22	16	0	6	663	428	+235	77	37	7	3	74
3	Bath Bath Rugby Bath Rugby is an English professional rugby union club that is based in the city of Bath. They play in the Aviva Premiership league...	22	14	0	8	680	430	+250	72	37	9	5	70
4	Northampton Saints Northampton Saints Northampton Saints are a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. The Northampton Saints were formed in 1880. They play in green, black and gold colours. They play their home games at Franklin's Gardens, which has a capacity of 13,591....	22	13	0	9	518	463
45	45	3	4	59
5	Saracens Saracens F.C. Saracens are a professional rugby union team based in St. Albans, England – although they play their home games at Vicarage Road, in Watford. They are currently members of the Aviva Premiership, the top level of domestic rugby union in England...	22	12	0	10	589	501	+88	63	48	6	4	58
6	Newcastle Falcons Newcastle Falcons The Newcastle Falcons is an English rugby union team currently playing in the Aviva Premiership. The club was established in 1877 and played under the name of Gosforth Football Club until 1990. The name was then changed to Newcastle Gosforth and the club began to play at Kingston Park stadium in...	22	11	0	11	554	568
57	65	7	6	57
7	Gloucester	22	10	0	12	473	526
43	45	3	5	48
8	London Irish London Irish London Irish RFC is an English rugby union club based in Sunbury, Surrey, where the senior squad train, the youth teams and senior academy play home games, and the club maintain their administrative offices. The senior squad play home games at the Madejski Stadium in Reading and compete in the top...	22	10	1	11	476	576
36	60	1	2	45
9	Bristol Bristol Rugby Bristol Rugby is a rugby union club based in Bristol, England. The club currently plays in the RFU Championship and competes in the British and Irish Cup. They rely in large part on the many junior rugby clubs in the region, particularly those from 'the Combination'...	22	9	1	12	443	492
34	36	1	5	44
10	Sale Sharks Sale Sharks Sale Sharks are a professional rugby union club who play in England in the Aviva Premiership.The club is an offshoot of Sale FC, which is based at Heywood Road in Sale, Greater Manchester, but Sharks currently play in Stockport at Edgeley Park, ground sharing with Stockport County F.C.Part of the...	22	8	1	13	561	622	-61	56	67	6	3	43
11	Harlequins Harlequin F.C. The Harlequin Football Club is an English rugby union team who play in the top level of English rugby, the Aviva Premiership. Their ground in London is Twickenham Stoop...	22	7	0	15	440	538
44	48	3	7	38
12	Rotherham Titans Rotherham R.U.F.C. Rotherham Rugby Union Football Club, or Rotherham Titans are a professional rugby union team from Rotherham, Yorkshire, currently playing in the English RFU Championship-History:...  (R)	22	2	0	20	335	813
29	103	1	3	12
Green background denotes qualification for the playoffs. These teams and those highlighted in blue qualified for the 2001–02 Heineken Cup. Newcastle gained a spot by virtue of winning the Powergen Cup. Harlequins gained a spot in the Heineken Cup by winning the 2000-01 European Challenge Cup 2000-01 European Challenge Cup The 2000–01 European Challenge Cup was the fifth year of the European Challenge Cup, the second tier rugby union cup competition below the Heineken Cup... .

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

Week 14

Week 15

Week 16

Week 17

Week 18

Week 19

Week 20

Week 21

Zurich Championship

The top eight teams qualified for the knock-out Zurich Championship, seeded on the basis of their league finish.

Seeding

225

235

250

55

88

Seed	Team	Table points	Wins	Points diff
1	Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers is an English rugby union club that plays in the Aviva Premiership.Leicester are the most successful English club since the introduction of league rugby in 1987, a record 9 times English champions - 3 more than either Bath or Wasps, the last of which was in 2010...	82	18
2	London Wasps London Wasps London Wasps is an English professional rugby union team. The men's first team, which forms London Wasps, was derived from Wasps Football Club who were formed in 1867 at the now defunct Eton and Middlesex Tavern in North London, at the turn of professionalism in 1999...	74	16
3	Bath Rugby Bath Rugby Bath Rugby is an English professional rugby union club that is based in the city of Bath. They play in the Aviva Premiership league...	70	14
4	Northampton Saints Northampton Saints Northampton Saints are a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. The Northampton Saints were formed in 1880. They play in green, black and gold colours. They play their home games at Franklin's Gardens, which has a capacity of 13,591....	59	13
5	Saracens Saracens F.C. Saracens are a professional rugby union team based in St. Albans, England – although they play their home games at Vicarage Road, in Watford. They are currently members of the Aviva Premiership, the top level of domestic rugby union in England...	58	12
6	Newcastle Falcons Newcastle Falcons The Newcastle Falcons is an English rugby union team currently playing in the Aviva Premiership. The club was established in 1877 and played under the name of Gosforth Football Club until 1990. The name was then changed to Newcastle Gosforth and the club began to play at Kingston Park stadium in...	57	11	−14
7	Gloucester	48	10	−53
8	London Irish London Irish London Irish RFC is an English rugby union club based in Sunbury, Surrey, where the senior squad train, the youth teams and senior academy play home games, and the club maintain their administrative offices. The senior squad play home games at the Madejski Stadium in Reading and compete in the top...	45	10	−100

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final