Professional Rugby League

This article is about the Russian rugby competition. For the American rugby competition, see PRO Rugby.
Professional Rugby League
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2013 Russian Professional Rugby League season
Sport Rugby union
Founded 2005
No. of teams 10
Country  Russia
Most recent
champion(s)
Yenisey-STM

Professional Rugby League (Russian: Профессиональная регбийная лига) is the premier rugby union competition in Russia. The Professional League was formed in 2005 and succeeds the Superleague. The Superleague, in turn, was active from 1992 to 2004 and succeeded the Soviet Championship.

Each club plays each opponent twice; four points are awarded for a win, two for a draw, and no points are given for a defeat. A similar points system is used by most of the club competitions. The top four clubs proceed to the play-offs (first introduced in 2006).

History

The founding of the league coincided with a period of rapid change for Russian rugby, and the format has differed nearly every season since 2005.

In 2007, Yug-Krasnodar were admitted to the competition, increasing the league's size to eight teams. For 2008 several lower division clubs were admitted, with a total of 14 teams split into three conferences based on geography. Many of elevated clubs were semiprofessional or even amateur in nature, which lead a lack of competitive balance. The average attendance that season was 4285.

2010 saw another change of format. Gone was the East-West divide, culminating in the formation of a 'Super Group'. VVA Monino, Krasny Yar, Yenisey-STM, Slava Moscow, RC Novokuznetsk and Imperia-Dynamo are joined by Fili Moscow and Spartak GM in a straight home-and-away league format. The Rugby Union of Russia were reluctant to make any changes in 2011, a World Cup year.

Current Teams

Geographic Locations

Agrouniversitet Kazan

Imperia Penza

Boulava Taganrog

Locations of the 2010–11 Professional Rugby League teams

Information

Club City Stadium Capacity
VVA Saracens Monino Gagarin Air Force Academy stadium 5000
Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk Avangard 5000
Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk Krasny Yar Stadium 3200
Slava Moscow Moscow Slava Stadium 2000
Spartak GM Moscow Moscow Rugby Academy Stadium ????
Fili Moscow Moscow Fili Stadium 2000
RC Novokuznetsk Novokuznetsk Rugby Stadium ????
Strela-Agro Kazan Kazan Tulpar Arena 3000
RC Bulava Taganrog Raduga Stadium ????
RC Kuban Krasnodar Trud Stadium ????

Former Teams

Seasons

Year Premier Runner-up 3rd place 4th place
2005 Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk VVA-Podmoskovye Monino Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk Slava Moscow
2006 VVA-Podmoskovye Monino Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk Slava Moscow
2007 VVA-Podmoskovye Monino Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk Slava Moscow
2008 VVA-Podmoskovye Monino Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk Slava Moscow Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk
2009 VVA-Podmoskovye Monino Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk Slava Moscow
2010 VVA-Podmoskovye Monino Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk Slava Moscow

League Honour Board

Year Champion Runner-up
Russian Superleague
1992 Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk VVA-Podmoskovye Monino
1993 VVA-Podmoskovye Monino Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk
1994 Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk VVA-Podmoskovye Monino
1995 Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk West Star Kaliningrad
1996 Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk RC Penza
1997 Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk RC Penza
1998 Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk VVA-Podmoskovye Monino
1999 Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk
2000 Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk
2001 Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk
2002 Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk
2003 VVA-Podmoskovye Monino Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk
2004 VVA-Podmoskovye Monino Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk
Russian Professional League
2005 Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk VVA-Podmoskovye Monino
2006 VVA-Podmoskovye Monino Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk
2007 VVA-Podmoskovye Monino Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk
2008 VVA-Podmoskovye Monino Slava Moscow
2009 VVA-Podmoskovye Monino Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk
2010 VVA-Podmoskovye Monino Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk
2011 Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk
Team Number of Titles
Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk 8
VVA-Podmoskovye Monino 8
Yenisey-STM Krasnoyarsk 3

References

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