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.

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.