Gloucester-Hartpury will take to the pitch this weekend when the league returns from a six-week break looking to sustain an enviable record in Premiership Women’s Rugby. The West Country team are unbeaten since a defeat by local rivals Bristol Bears in November 2024 and have since won 18 PWR games on the bounce, including their third successive final.

If Gloucester beat Loughborough at Kingsholm on Sunday they will leapfrog Saracens, who sit top of the table despite losing to the champions this season, and who have a bye this weekend. The top two are 12 points clear of the rest and the clubs who finish in either of those spots host their semi-final.

So does being top even matter if second gets you the same result? Saracens second row Georgia Evans believes so: “We want to be top all of the time. This league has stepped up, you’ve seen how competitive and close some of the games are. Top of the table means a lot.”

The competition below Gloucester and Saracens between third and sixth is tight, with three points separating the clubs who will battle for the remaining semi-final spots. Trailfinders, who are sixth, host the first game of the league’s return on Friday night against Harlequins. Scotland international Emma Wassell is set to make her domestic return in the coming weeks after two years on the sidelines.

Wassell, who signed for Trailfinders before the start of the season, has had injuries and a tumour in her chest which meant she has not played at club level since January 2024. “I am genuinely desperate to get on the pitch,” the 31-year-old said. “Being able to represent Trailfinders, all of the girls have been so great and coaches and staff. I have really enjoyed being at the club. I have felt very valued. It’s hard coming in as a new player and a new player who isn’t playing. Now I am getting so close I have butterflies in my stomach about competing for a spot.

“I think just playing in the league I am excited about. I have been watching it for far too long now from the sidelines. To play a part in it and get back on pitch, that is all I am excited about.”

The gulf between the top-six clubs and the others is eight points but two sides in particular are struggling this season. Leicester Tigers have won just one point so far, while Bristol are on a six-game losing streak.

However, they will remain in the top flight as the PWR is a long way from introducing relegation and players can see both the pros and cons for going down that route in the future.

Wassell added: “I do think the setups and resources for every team are not equal and that is tricky. Until you have a better consistency across all clubs [we can’t] bring that [promotion/relegation] in because it can feel slightly unfair. I do think building the competitiveness within all teams is really important.”

On the flip side, Evans would be excited to see jeopardy at the bottom of the table. She said: “When you know you are safe, sometimes you can get stuck in a rut. As players it’s the same thing: you can get stuck and just go through the motions because: ‘Oh we will be here next year and we will keep building’. It’s an exciting thing to think about because it does add that jeopardy because you are then scrapping and fighting.”

The PWR has also told the Guardian that the board decided there will be no league expansion in the 2026-27 season. The English top flight has been played between nine teams since the demise of Worcester Warriors women in 2023.

The PWR’s executive chair, Genevieve Shore, said: “We looked at it and our biggest inhibitor at the moment is player pool. When we have looked across the size of squads, breadth and depth of squads and Championship clubs and universities, we feel like everyone is in a really solid place. But if we were to now throw in a 10th team or an 11th or 12th team then we are putting a bit too much pressure on the system.”

Since the league was relaunched in 2017 there have been two retendering processes across the past nine seasons which saw clubs such as Richmond and Firwood Waterloo replaced by Exeter Chiefs and Sale Sharks. There has not been a retendering process, which took place every three seasons, since just before the 2023-24 campaign.