Saracens overpower Trailfinders 52-14 to claim fourth PWR title after four-year wait

Saracens reclaimed the Premiership Women’s Rugby title on Saturday, crushing Trailfinders Women 52-14 at the Twickenham Stoop to end a four-year wait and deny Gloucester Hartpury a fourth consecutive crown. It was a dominant, clinical performance that left little doubt about who the best team in England are.

For Director of Women’s Rugby Alex Austerberry, the victory carried particular weight. Saracens were the dominant force in the competition’s early years, winning back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019 before a pandemic-disrupted season and three straight Gloucester Hartpury championships pushed them off the top. Last season they fell at the final hurdle, beaten at StoneX Stadium as Emma Sing, Maud Muir and Natasha Hunt completed an unprecedented three-peat.

“Gloucester were superb champions for three years in a row and that has risen the bar — we’ve taken it a bit further as well,” Austerberry said after the final whistle. “I’m immensely proud of the girls. But now we have targets on our back and we’ve got to make sure — what, 40 minutes after full-time — we keep pushing forward because that’s what champions do.”

Austerberry made a pointed addition to his coaching staff ahead of this season, bringing in Kévin Rouet, the architect of Canada’s attack at the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup. Having worked with Rouet at that tournament, Austerberry identified him as the right person to take Saracens’ attacking game to another level — and the 52-point final-day haul suggests the appointment paid off.

The scale of the rebuild was underlined by the presence of four players in the matchday squad who, within the space of nine months, have won the Women’s Rugby World Cup, the Women’s Six Nations and now the PWR. That accumulation of winning experience was visible throughout a season in which Gloucester Hartpury were the only side to beat Saracens.

Trailfinders reached the final after Gloucester Hartpury’s dramatic post-Six Nations collapse, but Barney Maddison’s side were outclassed from the outset. The margin of victory — 38 points — spoke to the gulf between the finalists on the day.

“It’s very much engrained in everything,” Austerberry said of the club’s winning mentality. “I always say it is the team that work the most and are the fastest that goes on to win. We’ve got players, we’ve got staff here chomping at the bit to find ways to win — whether there are marginal gains or whether it be evolution of style and play.”

Saracens’ fourth PWR title is also their first since 2022, and it arrives with the sense that this squad, stacked with World Cup and Six Nations winners, is only getting started.