Women's Premier League Rugby


The USA Rugby Women's Premier League is the top annual American women's rugby union competition. It is player-run and operates in partnership with USA Rugby. It involves the top 10 clubs in the country. The league was founded in 2009.
The League initially began from 8 different Division 1 Women's Sides coming together in 2009. In 2017, the League grew to 10 clubs.
The 2020 Season was canceled on June 1, 2020 due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.

History

Founding

The WPL was founded in 2009 with 8 of the top Division 1 Women’s Teams in the US. The organization was created with the leadership of Kathy Flores, USA Eagle and Head Coach of the USA Women’s Team, and Alex Williams in order to grow the Women’s game and develop more potential players for the Women’s National Team.
The League began with 8 clubs: Beantown Rugby, Berkeley All Blues, New York Rugby Club, Washington DC Furies, Twin City Amazons, Keystone Rugby Club, Minnesota Valkyries, and Oregon Rugby Sports Union.

Promotion and relegation

In 2010, the league began its Promotion/Relegation opportunities for Division 1 Teams to join the WPL in 2010, whereby the top-ranked Division 1 Team would challenge the bottom-ranked WPL Team for their position in the WPL. From the end of the 2016 Season until the 2019 season, the WPL stopped its relegation due to their expansion.

Expansion and beyond

For the 2017 Season, the WPL allowed for the Leagues first expansion, growing the League from 8 to 10 teams, adding Beantown RFC and Chicago North Shore into the competition.
In 2017, the WPL created their Inaugural All-Stars Team, composed of top players from the season who would compete in preparation for the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup. In 2018, the WPL decided to create two All-Star Teams, one for the Eastern Conference and one for the Western Conference, allowing more players to compete at the top level of competition.
On June 1, 2020, the 2020 Season was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The season was later cancelled on July 8, 2020 and the WPL would resume in 2021.

Women's Premier League teams

Map

Current teams

Timeline


DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy
ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:25
Period = from:2009 till:2020
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:200 left:0 bottom:50 top:5
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id:line value:black
id:bg value:white
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width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:black fontsize:M from:12/15/2016 till:01/15/2017 text: Expansion to 10 Teams
bar:1 color:white fontsize:M from:01/15/2017 till:12/15/2019
bar:2 color:skyblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2009 till:12/31/2013 text: Beantown RFC
bar:2 color:skyblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2017 till:end text: Beantown RFC
bar:3 color:skyblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2009 till:end text: New York Rugby Club
bar:4 color:skyblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2009 till:end text: Twin Cities Amazons
bar:5 color:skyblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2009 till:end text: Berkeley All Blues
bar:6 color:skyblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2009 till:12/31/2010 text: ORSU
bar:6 color:skyblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2014 till:end text: ORSU
bar:7 color:pink fontsize:M from:01/01/2009 till:12/31/2011 text: Minnesota Valkyries
bar:8 color:pink fontsize:M from:01/01/2009 till:12/31/2012 text: Keystone Rugby Club
bar:9 color:pink fontsize:M from:01/01/2009 till:12/31/2018 text: Washington DC Furies
bar:10 color:skyblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2011 till:end text: San Diego Surfers
bar:11 color:powderblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2012 till:12/31/2016 text: Glendale Raptors
bar:11 color:skyblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2017 till:end text: Glendale Merlins
bar:12 color:skyblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2013 till:end text: Atlanta Harlequins
bar:13 color:skyblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2017 till:end text: Chicago North Shore
bar:14 color:skyblue fontsize:M from:01/01/2019 till:end text: Life West Gladiatrix
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:2009



Promotion/relegation

Former teams

League champions