The 2000âÂÂ01 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 2001âÂÂ02 season.
The top eight teams qualified for the knock-out Zurich Championship, seeded on the basis of their league finish.
Note: Flags to the left of player names indicate national team as has been defined under World Rugby eligibility rules, or primary nationality for players who have not earned international senior caps. Players may hold one or more non-WR nationalities.
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