Super Rugby

Super Rugby

Current season or competition: 2011 Super Rugby season
Super Rugby Logo introduced for 2011
Sport	Rugby union
Instituted	1996 (as Super 12)
Inaugural season	1996
Number of teams	15
Country	Australia (5 teams) New Zealand (5 teams) South Africa (5 teams)
Holders	Queensland Reds (2011: 1st title)
Most titles	Crusaders (7 titles)
Website	www.SuperRugby.com.au www.SuperRugby.co.nz www.SuperSport.com
Broadcast partner	DirecTV Fox Sports J Sports Sky Sport Sky Sports Supersport
Related competition	Australian Rugby Championship (defunct) Currie Cup ITM Cup

Super Rugby (rendered in the current competition logo as "SupeRugby", also colloquially referred to as "Super 15") is the largest and pre-eminent professional Rugby union competition in the Southern Hemisphere. After starting as the Super 10, then Super 12 and later growing into the Super 14 competition, it then expanded to 15 teams for the 2011 season and has been rebranded as Super Rugby, with no number included. It consists of teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The competition was started in 1996, and from the first season through to 2005, the competition was known as Super 12; the name was changed to Super 14 following the addition of two teams for the 2006 season. Matches are now broadcast in 41 countries.

Competition format and sponsorship

Format

Western Force (Blue) kicking off to the New South Wales Waratahs (White).

Prior to 2011, Super Rugby was a round-robin competition where each team plays with every other team once; a team has six or seven home games, and six or seven away games each. The winner gets four competition points, and if it is a draw two points are awarded to each team. Super Rugby uses the Rugby union bonus points system, where scoring four or more tries or losing by less than seven points results in an extra competition point. The top four teams at the end of the round-robin phase then play semifinals – the first placed team hosts the fourth placed team, and the second placed team hosts the third placed team. The two winners then play the final at the home ground of the top surviving seed. There were 91 regular season games in total. Games are held over 14 weekends with each team receiving one bye.

From 2011 the format changed, with each country forming their own conferences. Each team within a conference plays each other home and away. They then play four out of five teams from the other pools once. The Super Rugby finals also changed featuring six teams, the top teams in each conference plus the three next teams with the highest total number of points. The top two ranked teams will receive a bye at the start of the finals.

SANZAR

Main article: SANZAR

SANZAR is a joint union between the South African, New Zealand and Australian rugby Unions, that oversees the Super Rugby competitions and Tri Nations. There have been rumours that South Africa may one day leave Super Rugby and the Tri Nations to join the Six Nations in the Northern Hemisphere because South Africa's time zone would suit the move. The Tri Nations takes place after the Super Rugby season and involves the South Africa, Australia and New Zealand national teams.

Logo

File:Super 14 logo.png

The Super 14 Logo, used from 2006 through 2010.

During the last season of the Super 12, Coast Design of Sydney was commissioned to design a new logo for the Super 14. The Super 14 logo broke away from the traditional shield formats, common to many sporting codes, and used Roman numerals (XIV), which is unique for sport in the region. The game's dynamism and speed are suggested by the orbiting football which has three distinct stitches, a subtle reference to the three countries of the tournament.

The new Super Rugby logo dispenses with numbers, featuring a large blue "S" with a white rugby ball in the centre and "SupeRugbY" below the "S". The three stitches of the previous ball are retained.

Before the expansion to the Super 14, the Super 12 used a logo in the shape of a shield, which had the sponsors name at the top, and then the words "Rugby" and "Super 12". The lower half of the logo used three different coloured stripes, green, black and gold, the respective colours of the national teams of South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

Naming rights

The naming rights for the competition are different in the three countries:

• In New Zealand, Investec Bank has naming rights starting with the 2011 season, and the competition is referred to as Investec Super Rugby. During the Super 14 era, sporting goods retailer Rebel Sport had naming rights and the Super 14 competition was referred to as the Rebel Sport Super 14. Previously Ubix and then Telecom New Zealand (TNZ). Telecom used its ISP brand Xtra as the label in their last year of holding naming rights.
• In Australia, naming rights have not yet been awarded, so the competition is marketed simply as Super Rugby. Previously, Investec acquired naming rights in the middle of the Super 14 era from Lion Nathan, who had named the competition the Tooheys New Super 14, after its Tooheys New beer brand. Vodafone has also held naming rights in Australia.
• In South Africa, telecommunications carrier Vodacom has naming rights, and the expanded competition is referred to as Vodacom Super Rugby.

History

Pre SANZAR

Super 6

Super 10 Champions 1993 - 1995

Season	Champions	City/Area
1993	Lions	Johannesburg
1994	Reds	Brisbane
1995	Reds	Brisbane

Before 1996, regular competitive rugby union had taken shape in a number of southern hemisphere competitions, the earliest of which was the South Pacific Championship, which was launched in 1986. The original competition consisted of three teams from New Zealand; Auckland, Canterbury, Wellington along with two Australian teams; Queensland and New South Wales, and Fiji. The competition was relaunched as the Super Six in 1992.

Super 10

Main article: Super 10 (Southern Hemisphere competition)

In 1993, the Super 10 replaced the South Pacific Championship and Super Six tournaments. With South Africa being readmitted into international sport following the dismantling of apartheid, there was an opportunity to launch an expanded competition which would also feature South Africa's top provincial teams. The inaugural competition featured the following teams: Waikato, Auckland, Otago and North Harbour (New Zealand); Natal, Transvaal and Northern Transvaal (South Africa); Queensland and New South Wales (Australia), Western Samoa (Pacific Nations representative). The Super 10 was won by Transvaal (South Africa) in 1993, and by Queensland (Australia) in 1994 and 1995.

SANZAR era

Super 12

The official declaration of professionalism in rugby union in August 1995 led to a restructuring of the Super 10 competition. Following the success of the 1995 World Cup Australia, New Zealand and South Africa rugby boards formed SANZAR (South African, New Zealand and Australian Rugby) to administer an annual 12-team provincial/franchise based competition pitting regional teams from the three nations against each other. In addition it was decided to hold an annual Tri-Nations Test Series between the three countries. A significant reason for the development of the Super 12 was the threat to rugby union from rival football code rugby league: part of the business model for the Foxtel pay TV network in Australia was to attract subscribers by offering an exclusive product (such as rugby union) which could not be seen on free-to-air broadcast television. By setting up the Super 12, the Unions had a product that was in demand from viewers, enabling them to sell a 10 year contract for exclusive television rights to News Corp for US$ 555 million, giving them both coverage and financial support to kickstart the new competition.

With significant sponsorship, and rugby turning a professional sport in 1995, the Super 12 competition successfully kicked off in 1996 with five New Zealand franchises, four South African provinces and three domestic Australian teams competing. New Zealand's dominance of the competition began in the first year when the Auckland Blues won the inaugural competition defeating South African side the Natal Sharks 45 – 21 in a home final. The Blues would repeat the success of 1996 beating Australian side the ACT Brumbies 23 – 7 in the 1997 final.

The Blues then reached their third successive final in 1998 but went down to fellow countrymen the Canterbury Crusaders 13 – 20. This would mark the beginning of the Crusaders' three-year dominance as they went on to win the 1999 and 2000 finals over the Otago Highlanders and ACT Brumbies respectively. The 2001 season was the first in which no New Zealand franchise reached the final, being contested between the ACT Brumbies and Natal Sharks with the Brumbies convincing winners, with a 36 – 6 scoreline.

The Crusaders won their 4th final in 2002 winning all 11 matches and missed out on their 5th in 2003 with a four-point loss to fellow countrymen the Blues. In 2004 the Brumbies took revenge on their 2000 final loss to the Crusaders defeating them 47 – 38 in front of a home crowd. The Crusaders would bounce back to win the 2005 final 35 – 25 against the Australian side the New South Wales Waratahs who reached their first ever final. This was the last year of the 12 team format.

From the early 2000s Australia had started to push for the inclusion of a fourth Australian team, and South Africa for another team from its country. There was also speculation of including a team from the South Pacific Island nations, such as Fiji; or a combined Pacific Islanders team from Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga. Argentina was also pushing for inclusion in the Super 12. In the early 2000s the provincial names from the New Zealand franchises were dropped. So the Canterbury Crusaders become the simply The Crusaders. Also South Africa followed the New Zealand franchise model, where previously South African participation was decided by the previous year's Currie Cup placings.

Super 14

In September 2004, SANZAR began negotiations for a new television deal to take effect in 2006. That December, SANZAR announced that a new TV deal had been signed, with News Corporation winning the rights for the UK, Australia and New Zealand and Supersport winning rights for South Africa. The contract is worth USD 323 million over five years, which is a 16% annual increase compared to the previous deal. It covers international fixtures as well as the Super 14. SANZAR remained free to negotiate separate deals for other markets, such as France, Japan and the Americas.

The TriNations is the "cash cow" for the SANZAR partners as it provides nearly 60 per cent of the money from News Ltd. The Super 14 made up about 30 per cent of the deal.

Under the new deal, Australia and South Africa each got one extra team in the competition, and a third round of fixtures was added to the Tri Nations Series. The proposal also included the possibility of splitting the updated Super 14 into two seven-team divisions, but it was decided to keep the competition in its traditional single-table format. However, Argentina and the Pacific Islands remain shut out of the competition under this proposal.

It was confirmed in 2005 that the new Australian team in the competition would be based in Perth and was named the Western Force. The addition of the new South African team led to considerable controversy, including government involvement. Finally, the five teams for 2006 were confirmed to be the country's existing four teams, plus the Central Cheetahs, which draws its players from the Free State and Northern Cape Provinces.

The Cats (now the Lions) playing the Sharks.

The two new teams didn't perform all that well, the South African franchise the Cheetahs did the better of the two teams finishing 10th on the ladder notching up 5 season wins. The Australian franchise the Western Force only managed one victory and ended winning the wooden spoon as last placed 14th. The highlight for the Force was a 23-all draw against eventual champions the Crusaders, who defeated first-time finalists the Hurricanes 19 – 12.

For the 2007 season, 22 All Blacks missed the competition's first seven rounds as part of an All Black "conditioning programme". The conditioning programme was a part of the All Blacks' 2007 Rugby World Cup preparations, and every New Zealand franchise was without players for the first seven rounds. At the end of the regular season, for the first time since 1998, no Australian franchise had made the semi-finals. Although the Brumbies were strong and the Western Force experienced vast improvement it was a poor season for the Queensland Reds and Waratahs who finished last and second last respectively. Also, it was known before the final that the competition would be won for the first time ever by a South African team, as the Sharks and Bulls, who finished 1–2 on the season ladder, both won their respective semifinals. The final, held in Durban, saw the visiting Bulls win 20–19.

Super Rugby

Expansion to 15 teams

On May 19, 2009, following prolonged negotiations, SANZAR unveiled its model for an expanded season to start in 2011. This model was due to be presented to current broadcast rights holder News Corporation for approval before the end of June 2009. The new structure is based around the original ARU proposal for three national conferences, whereby each side would have played the other four teams from their own country twice and all of the other teams once, before a six team finals series. However, there were two major compromises that – while somewhat complicating the model – were designed to accommodate the wishes of all three countries. Firstly, each team would only play four of the five teams in each of the other two national conferences, meaning sixteen regular season games for each team. This 'trimming' of the model would allow for a late February start (somewhat placating the ARU and NZRU who wanted a March start), a three week gap for the June test matches (favoured by the SARU) and an early August finish so as not to overlap new streamlined versions of New Zealand and South Africa's domestic competitions. Secondly, the three conference winners and the three best performed of the remaining teams would qualify for a three week finals series, with seedings deciding the match-ups. This system would be a hybrid of the conference-based qualification system favoured by the SARU and the 'top six' model favoured by the ARU and NZRU.

On 11 November 2009, SANZAR announced Melbourne will play in the expanded "Super 15" competition in 2011 after the Australian start-up franchise was given the nod ahead of South Africa's Southern Kings. The licence was awarded to Victoria, Australia, and the team is named the Melbourne Rebels. Brian Waldron, former CEO of the NRL club the Melbourne Storm, was confirmed as the new CEO of the Rebels on 11 January 2010, but resigned on 23 April after a salary cap breach was uncovered at the Storm.

Possible expansion to 16

According to a Sport24 report, SANZAR has cleared the path for the Southern Kings team to join Super Rugby in an expanded 16-team format beginning in 2013. Final details of the plan are still being worked out, but the team will join the South African conference and represent the Eastern Cape province. Due to the additional side and increase in fixtures, the South African conference may begin play a few weeks ahead of its Australian and New Zealand counterparts.

Teams

Main article: Super Rugby franchise areas

Overview of teams
Country	Team	City/Area	Stadium/s (Capacity)
Australia	Brumbies	Australian Capital Territory Australia Capital Territory and Southern New South Wales including Canberra, Queanbeyan, Nowra and Albury	Canberra Stadium (25,011)
	Waratahs	New South Wales Northern and Central New South Wales including Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, Tamworth and Coffs Harbour	ANZ Stadium (83,500) Sydney Football Stadium (45,500)
	Reds	Queensland All of Qld including Brisbane, Gold Coast, Cairns and Rockhampton	Suncorp Stadium (52,500)
	Force	Western Australia All of Western Australia, including Perth, Mandurah, Bunbury and Kalgoorlie	nib Stadium (20,500)
	Rebels	Victoria All of Victoria including greater Melbourne, Geelong and the surf coast, the Western Districts and The Mallee, Sunraysia south of the Murray, the central Goldfields of Ballarat and Bendigo,and Gippsland. This may be expanded in the future to include Tasmania	AAMI Park (30,050)
New Zealand	Blues	Auckland, North Harbour, and Northland. (North Auckland Peninsula of North Island and most of metropolitan Auckland).	Eden Park (50,000) North Harbour Stadium (25,000)
	Chiefs	Bay of Plenty, Counties Manukau, King Country, Thames Valley and Waikato Central and eastern North Island, including Hamilton; Southern Auckland, Tauranga and Rotorua	Baypark Stadium (19,800) Waikato Stadium (25,800)
	Crusaders	Buller, Canterbury, Mid-Canterbury, South Canterbury, Tasman and West Coast North and central South Island, including Christchurch, Nelson, Blenheim and Timaru	AMI Stadium (38,628)
	Highlanders	North Otago, Otago and Southland Southern South Island, including Dunedin and Invercargill	Carisbrook (29,000) Queenstown Events Centre (19,000) Rugby Park Stadium (17,000)
	Hurricanes	East Coast, Hawke's Bay, Horowhenua Kapiti, Manawatu, Poverty Bay, Taranaki, Wairarapa-Bush, Wanganui and Wellington Southern and southwestern North Island, including Wellington, Palmerston North, New Plymouth and Napier	FMG Stadium (18,000) McLean Park (22,000) Westpac Stadium (34,500)
South Africa	Bulls	Pretoria (plus East Rand and Limpopo Province)	Loftus Versfeld (51,762) Orlando Stadium (40,000)
	Cheetahs	Bloemfontein (Free State plus Northern Cape)	Free State Stadium (48,000) GWK Park (18,000)
	Lions	Johannesburg (plus Mpumalanga and North West)	Ellis Park Stadium (62,567) FNB Stadium (94,736)
	Sharks	Durban (KwaZulu-Natal)	Kings Park Stadium (55,000)
	Stormers	Cape Town (plus northern Western Cape)	Newlands Stadium (51,900) Cape Town Stadium (64,100)

For the 2007 season, the Southern Spears, based in Port Elizabeth, were originally intended to replace the lowest-finishing South African team from the 2006 competition. However, the existing South African Super 14 franchises opposed the plan, which they believed was pushed through by controversial former president of the South African Rugby Union, Brian van Rooyen. On 19 April 2006, after van Rooyen was ousted as president, SARU announced that the Spears would not enter the competition. SARU then called for an investigation into the viability of the Spears after discovering the franchise had serious financial irregularities.

In August, 2006, a High Court of South Africa ruling stated that the Spears had a valid contract with SANZAR and SARU to compete in the Super 14 and Currie Cup. However, because of the organisation's financial and administrative troubles, in November 2006 a settlement was reached. The Spears abandoned their legal case, and will continue to exist, however they now will not compete in the Super 14. Although there is no official connection, the remnants of the Spears were effectively reconstituted into the Southern Kings, who unsuccessfully applied to enter the competition in 2011, losing out to Melbourne, Australia. It is yet to be seen if they will be admitted in the future.

Super Rugby Champions

Main article: List of Super Rugby champions

Year	# of Teams		Final				Losing semi-finalists
			Winner	Score	Runner-up		1st losing semi-finalist	2nd losing semi-finalist
1996 Details	12		Blues	45 – 21	Sharks		Reds	Bulls
1997 Details	12		Blues	23 – 7	Brumbies		Hurricanes	Sharks
1998 Details	12		Crusaders	20 – 13	Blues		Sharks	Highlanders
1999 Details	12		Crusaders	24 – 19	Highlanders		Reds	Stormers
2000 Details	12		Crusaders	20 – 19	Brumbies		Highlanders	Cats
2001 Details	12		Brumbies	36 – 6	Sharks		Cats	Reds
2002 Details	12		Crusaders	31 – 13	Brumbies		Waratahs	Highlanders
2003 Details	12		Blues	21 – 17	Crusaders		Hurricanes	Brumbies
2004 Details	12		Brumbies	47 – 38	Crusaders		Stormers	Chiefs
2005 Details	12		Crusaders	35 – 25	Waratahs		Bulls	Hurricanes
2006 Details	14		Crusaders	19 – 12	Hurricanes		Waratahs	Bulls
2007 Details	14		Bulls	20 – 19	Sharks		Crusaders	Blues
2008 Details	14		Crusaders	20 – 12	Waratahs		Sharks	Hurricanes
2009 Details	14		Bulls	61 – 17	Chiefs		Hurricanes	Crusaders
2010 Details	14		Bulls	25 – 17	Stormers		Crusaders	Waratahs
2011 Details	15		Reds	18 – 13	Crusaders		Blues	Stormers

Crusaders scrum against the Brumbies in May 2006

Total wins

Team	City/Area	Championships	Runners-up
Crusaders	Christchurch	7	3
Blues	Auckland	3	2
Bulls	Pretoria	3	0
Brumbies	Canberra	2	3
Reds	Brisbane	1	0
Sharks	Durban	0	3
Waratahs	Sydney	0	2
Highlanders	Dunedin	0	1
Hurricanes	Wellington	0	1
Chiefs	Hamilton	0	1
Stormers	Cape Town	0	1

Wins by Country

Country	Championships	Runners-up
New Zealand	10	8
Australia	3	5
South Africa	3	6

Trophies

Main article: Super Rugby Trophy

The Super Rugby trophy is sterling silver and has the competition logo on a globe which sits atop of a four-sided twisted spiral; it stands at 49 centimetres high and weighs 2.7 kilogram. Jens Hansen Gold and Silversmith in Nelson, New Zealand hand made the trophy which took over two months to make; the same workshop made the gold ring in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

On February 7, a new Super Rugby Trophy was unveiled in Wellington, New Zealand for the Super 14 competition. In the first Super 14 final, played at Jade Stadium, in Christchurch, on May 27, 2006, the Crusaders beat the Hurricanes 19–12.

There are several other trophies contested during the competition; the Charles Anderson VC Memorial Cup between the Brumbies and Stormers, the Bob Templeton Cup between the Reds and Waratahs, and the Gordon Hunter Memorial Trophy between the Blues and Highlanders.

Every year the Super Rugby player of the year is awarded.

On 30 June 2011, SANZAR unveiled the new trophy that will be presented to the winners of the Super 15 final scheduled for Saturday, 9 July 2011.

The trophy, which will be in use from 2011 and beyond, was crafted from solid stainless steel and polished to a mirror finish. It has a height of 65 cm and a mass of 18 kilograms.

The trophy was designed by the company responsible for the 2000 Olympic Torch, Blue Sky Design of Sydney. The trophy was manufactured by Box and Dice Pty Ltd also based in Sydney.

SANZAR CEO, Greg Peters, said “The shape of the trophy is centred around three curved legs, each representing the Conferences involved in the Super Rugby competition.”

According to Peters, “The champions trophy is the ‘big one’, and will become the ultimate symbol of Super Rugby supremacy in the years to come.”

The colour on each leg corresponds to the Conferences with gold for Australia, black for New Zealand, and green for the South Africa.

The Reds of Australia, the Stormers of South Africa and the Crusaders of New Zealand were the winners of their respective conferences and were each presented with a scaled-down copy of the trophy.

Super rugby records

Main article: List of Super Rugby records

Team records

• Highest score: 96 points – Crusaders defeated Waratahs 96–19, 2002
• Lowest score: 0 points – Reds defeated Hurricanes 11–0, 1999; Brumbies defeated Bulls 15–0, 1999; Sharks defeated Bulls 29–0, 1999; Brumbies defeated Cats 64–0, 2000; Highlanders defeated Bulls 23–0, 2005; Blues defeated Brumbies 17–0, 2006; Brumbies defeated Reds 36–0, 2007; Crusaders defeated Western Force 53–0, 2008; Crusaders defeated Stormers 22–0, 2009; Highlanders defeated Crusaders 6–0, 2010; Stormers defeated Highlanders 33 – 0, 2011; Waratahs defeated Rebels 43–0, Crusaders defeated Bulls 27–0,
• Highest combined score: 137 points – Chiefs defeated Lions 72–65, 2010
• Lowest combined score: 6 points – Highlanders defeated Crusaders 6–0, 2009
• Highest winning margin: 89 points – Bulls defeated Reds 92–3, 2007
• Highest score away: 72 points – Chiefs defeated Lions 72–65, 2010
• Most consecutive wins: 15 wins – Crusaders, 2002/03
• Most consecutive losses in a season: 13 losses – Lions, 2010
• Most consecutive losses: 17 losses – Lions, 15 May 2009 to 12 March 2011
• Most tries in a match by one team: 14 by Crusaders (v Waratahs), 2002
• Most tries in a match by both teams: 18 by Lions and Chiefs, 2010
• Most tries in a season: 71 tries – Crusaders, 2005
• Fewest tries in a season: 15 tries – Blues, 1999, 2000; Reds, 2007
• Most wins in a season: 13 wins – Reds, 2011 regular season
• Fewest wins in a season: 0 wins – Bulls, 2002, Lions, 2010 regular season
• Fewest losses in a season: 0 losses – Blues, 1997 and Crusaders, 2002
• Most wins in a row at home: 26 wins – Crusaders 2004–2006
• Most points conceded in a season: 585 – Lions, 2010
• Largest points difference conceded in a season: 315 – Lions, 2010

Individual records

Match

• Points: 50 – Gavin Lawless, Sharks
• Tries: 4, Joe Roff (Brumbies), Gavin Lawless & Stefan Terblanche (Sharks), Joeli Vidiri, Doug Howlett & Mils Muliaina (Blues), Caleb Ralph (Crusaders), Sitiveni Sivivatu (Chiefs), Drew Mitchell (Waratahs), Sean Maitland (Crusaders)
• Conversions: 13 – Andrew Mehrtens, Crusaders
• Penalties: 8 – Jannie Kruger, Derick Hougaard, Bulls
• Drop Goals: 4 – Morne Steyn, Bulls

Career

• Points: 1108 – Daniel Carter, Crusaders
• Tries: 59 Doug Howlett, Blues
• Conversions: 185 – Daniel Carter, Crusaders
• Penalties: 202 – Andrew Mehrtens, Crusaders
• Quickest Try: 8 Seconds – Bryan Habana, Stormers
• Consecutive Matches: 99 – Pedrie Wannenburg, Bulls
• Most Matches: 148 – Sean Hardman, Reds

Season

• Points: 263 – Morné Steyn, Bulls, 2010
• Tries: 15 – Joe Roff, Brumbies, 1997; Rico Gear, Crusaders, 2005
• Conversions: 51 – Stirling Mortlock, Brumbies, 2004
• Penalties: 51 – Andrew Mehrtens, Crusaders, 1999

Domestic competitions

Each respective country competing in Super Rugby has a number of their own domestic leagues, which feed into Super franchises. South Africa actually used their Currie Cup teams as opposed to creating new franchises during the earlier years of the Super 12. However, the Currie Cup is now the third tier of rugby in South Africa, below Test and Super, it is played after the Super Rugby season, and all unions are aligned to a franchise (but not all franchises play Super Rugby, see Southern Kings), though it is mainly the big five, the Blue Bulls, Golden Lions, Natal Sharks, Free State Cheetahs and Western Province which contribute the most to the Super Rugby sides.

In New Zealand, the ITM Cup is the most prominent domestic tournament below the Super Rugby, in which all the respective Unions are also aligned with Super franchises.

In Australia, a new national club competition called the Mazda Australian Rugby Championship was launched in 2007. It was intended to bridge the gap between Super 14 and club rugby, and was similar to the Currie Cup and [[ITM Cup]. It consisted of eight teams: Sydney Fleet, Central Coast Rays, Western Sydney Rams (from New South Wales), Ballymore Tornadoes, East Coast Aces (from Queensland), Perth Spirit (from Western Australia), Melbourne Rebels (from Victoria) and the Canberra Vikings (from ACT). The competition began on 10 August, played in a round-robin format, with the Grand Final played on 14 October. Western Sydney were the minor premiers (i.e., finished atop the league table before the playoffs), but lost in the semifinals. Central Coast won the inaugural and ultimately only Grand Final. The ARU scrapped the competition after its inaugural season, citing larger-than-expected financial losses of A$4.7 million.

Media

Super Rugby is broadcast on Supersport in South Africa, Sky Sport in New Zealand, and on FOX Sports in Australia. Super Rugby is simulcast terrestrially on M-Net in South Africa. In 2004, the Seven Network said it had no interest in the then Super 12 competition because of poor ratings. There is also a problem with the different time zones between the three nations, which can make it difficult for fans to watch games when their team is playing away. Super Rugby is now broadcast in over 40 countries; in the UK on Sky Sports, in Spain it is broadcast by Digital+, and in the United States by DirecTV, which has confirmed all 125 matches will be broadcast on Channel 490 & 491 and in HD on Channel 490–1 & 491–1.

The Super Rugby competition is featured in the Electronic Arts (EA) Rugby series. See Rugby 06, Rugby 08.

See also

• Experimental law variations
• Heineken Cup – pan-European club Rugby
• List of Super 14 stadiums
• List of Super Rugby records
• South Pacific Championship
• Super 10
• Super 12 champions
• Super 14 champions
• Super Rugby franchise areas
• Super Rugby Trophy
• Top 14 – French club Rugby
• Top League – Japanese club Rugby

Bibliography

• Gifford, Phil (2004). The Passion – The Stories Behind 125 years of Canterbury Rugby. Wilson Scott Publishing. ISBN 0-9582535-1-X.
• Howitt, Bob (2005). SANZAR Saga – Ten Years of Super 12 and Tri-Nations Rugby. Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN 1-86950-566-2.
• McIlraith, Matt (2005). Ten Years of Super 12. Hodder Moa. ISBN 1-86971-025-8.

External links

• FOX Sports Australia Super 14 section
• Official Super 14 site in New Zealand – operated by the NZRU
• Super 14 Predictions and Results
• Super 15 website – Super14 expansion news,teams etc
• Unofficial Super 14 website – latest news, teams etc

Official Websites

• Super Rugby (International)
  • Super Rugby (Australia)
    • Brumbies
    • Force
    • Rebels
    • Reds
    • Waratahs
  • Super Rugby (New Zealand)
    • Blues
    • Chiefs
    • Crusaders
    • Highlanders
    • Hurricanes
  • Super Rugby (South Africa)
    • Bulls
    • Cheetahs
    • Lions
    • Sharks
    • Stormers