Super Rugby
Current season or competition: 2012 Super Rugby season
200px 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	Shute Shield, Queensland Premier Rugby, ACTRU Premier Division, Dewar Shield, KWIK Premier Grade ITM Cup Currie 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. Building off various Southern Hemisphere competitions dating back to 1986, with teams from a number of southern nations, Super Rugby officially started in 1996 with 12 teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The competition was known as Super 12 through to the end of the 2005 season; the name was changed to Super 14 with the addition of two teams for the 2006 season; with expansion to 15 teams in the three countries for the 2011 season, the competition has been rebranded as Super Rugby (no number included).

By 2006, matches were being broadcast in 41 countries.^[1]

Competition format and sponsorship[link]

Format[link]

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.^[2] The two winners then play the final at the home ground of the top surviving seed.^[2] There were 91 regular season games in total.^[3] 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.^[4]

SANZAR[link]

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.^[5] The Tri Nations takes place after the Super Rugby season and involves the South Africa, Australia and New Zealand national teams.

Logo[link]

During the last season of the Super 12, Coast Design of Sydney was commissioned to design a new logo for the Super 14.^[6] 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.^[7] 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.^[7]

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.^[8][9]

Naming rights[link]

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, global forex broker FxPro has naming rights for four years starting from the 2012 season, and the competition is referred to as FxPro Super Rugby.^[10] In the first season of Super Rugby, Australia had no naming rights partner. Previous to that, 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[link]

Pre SANZAR[link]

[edit] Super 6

Super 6 Champions 1992

Season	Champions	City/Area
1992	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.

[edit] Super 10

Super 10 Champions 1993 - 1995

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

In 1993, the Super Six competition was revamped and expanded into the Super 10 tournament. 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[link]

Super 12[link]

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.^[11]

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[link]

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.^[11] 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".^[12] 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.^[13][14] 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[link]

Expansion to 15 teams[link]

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.^[15] 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.^[16]

Possible expansion to 16[link]

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.^[17] On 27 January 2012, it was confirmed that the Southern Kings would join Super Rugby in 2013, but it has not yet been revealed how they would be accommodated.^[18]

Possible expansion to other countries[link]

In February 2012, SANZAR chief executive Greg Peters told media that the organisation was considering adding franchises in Argentina, Japan and the United States in 2016, the first year of SANZAR's next television contract. Not coincidentally, this will also be the year in which rugby sevens enters the Olympics, which is already contributing to increased interest in the sport in many countries, including Japan and the US.^[19]

Australian sports broadcasting analyst Colin Smith noted that the addition of Japanese and American teams could result in a TV deal worth more than A$1 billion beyond 2020. Specifically, he stated, "You could have a deal comparable to the other major sports in Australia. Rugby is a college (university) sport in the US, if soccer can create its own league there and sell teams for $40 million, imagine what you could do in 10-12 years with rugby in that market."^[19] By comparison, the largest TV deal in Australian sport, that of the Australian Football League (Australian rules), is worth A$1.26 billion from 2012–16. Even that figure is dwarfed by the TV contracts of the NFL. That league's current contracts are worth more than US$4 billion annually.^[20]

Peters added that the current conference-based structure was ideal for expanding the competition to new territories, either by adding new conferences or by adding teams to the current conferences. He also discussed the possibility that offshore Super Rugby teams could be a home for surplus players from the SANZAR countries, keeping them in the SANZAR fold and away from European clubs:

That could well have some legs. But the key for it to be successful, as you see in Japan, is it has to have the majority of local players. That's where the States becomes more attractive because they have the athletes — NFL guys that don't make it — we just need to make sure they have the skills that rugby needs.^[21]

Teams[link]

•Bulls

•Lions

•Cheetahs

•Sharks

•Stormers

•Kings

•Reds

•Brumbies

•Waratahs

•Rebels

•Western Force

•Blues

•Chiefs

•Hurricanes

•Crusaders

•Highlanders