Premier Rugby Tavaris

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Premier Rugby Tavaris (Tavari: Tavarís Ragbi Renetavi) known as Ella Premier Rugby for sponsorship reasons or just Premier Rugby, is a Tavari union rugby competition consisting of 18 teams. It is the top level of the Tavari Union rugby system. Each year, teams compete to win the Tavari Rugby Cup, which is awarded after a postseason tournament. The current holders of the cup are the Nuvrenon War Cats, who have won the Rugby Cup nine times—the most of any team. The league is owned by Bló Networks, Inc., the country's third largest broadcast televison network. Tavari billionaire Otan Lanaš Bettõndra launched both in 1981, hoping televising the sport would being attention to his new TV network. The competition was a breakout hit and has remained popular in Tavaris since.

Originally launching with 10 teams, the league gained two more teams after its first year. For the season beginning in 2023, it announced a major expansion to 18 teams across every country in the Tavari Union. From 1984 until the end of the 2021-2022 season, the top finishing team from the second level league, the Mexitak Rugby Championship, was promoted to Premier Rugby for the next season, while the bottom team in Premier Rugby was relegated down to the second level. Upon the expansion, however, Premier Rugby announced an end to relegation and promotion, with all 18 teams staying in Premier Rugby permanently. By coincidence, the final promotion/relegation (after the season ending in 2022) resulted in all twelve original 1981 and 1982 Premier Rugby teams returning to the highest level, with no teams who originally started play at lower levels. This was highly controversial for a number of popular teams in the second level who had played many seasons in Premier Rugby, such as the 1992 and 1993 Tavari Rugby Cup winners, known then as the Ratani Macaws, who attracted special attention for their players'—the youngest team on average in the league, all students at Tavaris Central University—humorous antics in press junkets and on the sidelines of games. In 2022, the team changed its name to the Shano Tuvria Memorial Rugby Team, after Tuvria was revealed to be alive, and has stated it intends to keep the name after discovering that Tuvria, a Ratani native and Tavaris Central graduate, is a fan of the team. Tuvria, who has generally shunned press interviews since his return from captivity in the Danvreas, stated publicly that he was "quite bummed out" that his team would never have the chance to play for the Tavari Rugby Cup again.

Otan Lanaš Bettōndra took primary inspiration from the Aszar Rugby Cup when bringing the sport to Tavaris, citing the sport's enduring popularity in the country and seeking to replicate it in Tavaris. He believed the sport would appeal to the Tavari public as a sort of "grown-up" version of association football, which by the end of the twentieth century had become the dominant sport in Tavaris especially among children because of its ubiquitousness in schools. He specifically brought over the union rugby ruleset, the style preferred in Aduraszna, though like in modern Aduraszna, labor union ownership of teams is not common. Lanaš Bettōndra did put out an offer to all Tavari labor unions when the league launched to purchase a team franchise, but only one—Tavari Shipwrights, Aircraft, and Automobile Workers United—accepted the offer, now owning the Good Harbor Shipwrights.

Citing Aszar rugby's history of unusual games, the first rule of the Premier Rugby rulebook is Section 1(a), which reads "Murder is explicitly forbidden." Section 1(b), which forbade committing "any illegal action" during play, under penalty of forfeiture, had to be repealed in May of 1985 after an accounting error resulted in Nakaš Panthers players receiving their paychecks without taxes withheld and the coach of the Višara Whalers, opposing the Panthers in the final game of the regular season, successfully accused the Panthers of violating rule 1(b) by committing tax fraud and won the game, causing the Panthers to come in last and be relegated.

Teams

Original 10

• Nuvrenon War Cats
• Good Harbor Shipwrights
• Crystal Coast Shrikes
• Nandrat Jaguars
• Dravai United
• Nakaš Panthers
• Power City Rugby Club (Tovat)
• Višara Whalers
• Anara Ospreys
• Olara Ruggers

1982 Expansion

• Lantaž Lancers
• Arktorís Rumrunners

2023 Expansion

• Sinajärv Pirates
• Racatrazi Knights
• Nežendris Lumberjacks
• Argiento Mosquitos
• Navandris United
• Ranat Mountain Lions