The 2010 Super 14 season kicked off in February 2010 with pre-season matches held from mid-January. It finished on 29 May. The 2010 season was the fifth and last season of the expanded Super 14 format. The schedule, which covers 3½ months, featured a total of 94 matches, with each team playing one full round-robin against the 13 other teams, two semi-finals and a final. Every team received one bye over the 14 rounds.

Table

Referees

The referees for this tournament came from all three of the participating nations. Referees are ranked by Merit and Reserve Panels. They can be promoted or demoted to another panel. At least eighty Percent of the Super 14 games will be refereed by the Merit Panel Referees. Australian Referees * Stuart Dickinson (Merit Panel) * Steve Walsh (Reserve Panel) * Ian Smith (Reserve Panel) * Nathan Pearce (Reserve Panel) * Paul Marks (Reserve Panel)- Stood down from panel, following reviews of his performances at the end of Week 4. He was re-included on the reserve panel for Round 14. New Zealand Referees *

Bryce Lawrence Bryce Lawrence (born 23 December 1970) is a former professional international rugby union referee from the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. He is now the National Referee Manager for the New Zealand Rugby Union. Overview Originally a primary school h ...

(Merit Panel) * Chris Pollock (Merit Panel) * Keith Brown (Merit Panel) * Garratt Williamson (Reserve Panel) * Jonathan White (Reserve Panel) * Vinny Munro (Reserve Panel) South African Referees *

Craig Joubert Craig Paul Joubert (born 8 November 1977) is a South African professional rugby union referee and a Referee Talent Development Coach at World Rugby. Joubert officiated in domestic first class matches in South Africa since 2003, in matches in the ...

(Merit Panel) *

Jonathan Kaplan Jonathan Kaplan (born November 25, 1947) is an American film producer and director. His film ''The Accused'' (1988) earned actress Jodie Foster an Oscar for Best Actress and was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 39th Berlin International ...

(Merit Panel) *

Marius Jonker Marius Jonker (born 19 June 1968 in Kimberley, Northern Cape) is a South African rugby union Television Match Official and former referee. He refereed at the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, and regularly took charge of Super Rugby and Currie ...

(Merit Panel) * Mark Lawrence (Merit Panel) * Jaco Peyper (Reserve Panel) * Pro Legoete (Reserve Panel)- Stood down from panel, following reviews of his performances at the end of Week 4

Results

Round 1

A Super Rugby record was set when the Hurricanes kicked 9 penalty goals in total throughout the match, 5 to

Willie Ripia Willie Ripia (born 20 August 1985) is a rugby union player. He plays as a first five-eighth. He was born in Murupara, New Zealand. Ripia attended Rotorua Boys' High School. Ripia started his Super 14 career at the Highlanders before moving to ...

and 4 to

Piri Weepu Piri Awahou Tihou Weepu (born 7 September 1983) is a retired New Zealand rugby union player. Weepu played most recently for Wairarapa Bush in the Heartland Championship. Generally Weepu played as a half-back but also played at first five-eigh ...

Stirling Mortlock Stirling Austin Mortlock AM (born 20 May, 1977) is a former Australian professional rugby union player. He has scored more than 1,000 points in Super Rugby, and nearly 500 test points for the Wallabies. Mortlock is a former Wallaby, Melbourne Re ...

became the first player in Super Rugby to score over 1,000 points in this match.

Round 2

This match set several new Super Rugby records including the highest aggregate score in a single match (137 points), highest score by an away side (72) and the most tries scored in a Super Rugby match (18).

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

In this match,

Dan Carter Daniel William Carter (born 5 March 1982) is a retired New Zealand rugby union player. Carter played for Crusaders (Super Rugby) in New Zealand and played for New Zealand's national team, the All Blacks. He is the highest point scorer in ...

became the all-time leading points scorer in Super Rugby history.

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

As a result of this match, the Stormers became the first South African team to beat every New Zealand based team in the regular Super 12/14 season.

Round 13

Round 14

As a result of this match, the Lion holds the record for most losses in one season, with 13 straight losses. They also became the second team in Super Rugby history to lose all their round robin matches, joining the Bulls side of 2002.

Finals

Semi-finals

Final

The Final of the 2010 Super 14 season took place on 29 May 2010 at

Orlando Stadium Orlando Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Soweto, a suburb of Johannesburg, in Gauteng province in South Africa. It is the home venue for Orlando Pirates Football Club, a professional soccer team that plays in the Premier Soccer League. ...

Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. The Bulls, based in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

, hosted the Stormers, from

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

, in the second all-South African final. The defending champion Bulls won 25–17 to claim their second consecutive title and third in four years. This was the last Super 14 final, as the

Melbourne Rebels The Melbourne Rebels is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne. They made their debut in SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. They were the first privately owned professional rugby union team in Australia, until 2017 ...

joined the Super Rugby competition in the 2011 season to create a new Super Rugby competition. The Bulls' normal home, Loftus Versfeld, was unavailable because it was used as a venue for the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

being held in South Africa beginning 11 June. Under

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

rules, all World Cup venues must be handed over to the local organisers no later than 15 days before the opening match of the competition. Orlando Stadium was the largest, suitable, stadium in the Bulls' home province of

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

that was not being used for the World Cup. The game was surrounded in controversy after

Schalk Burger Schalk Willem Petrus Burger Jr. (born 13 April 1983) is a South African former professional rugby union player. He played as a flanker for Saracens in the English Premiership and has won 86 caps for South Africa. He was a member of the 2007 Ru ...

claimed that the referee

was inconsistent at the breakdowns, "coaching the Bulls, but penalising the Stormers". This sparked an outcry over the handling of the game by Joubert, and internet blogs were buzzing due to the alleged incompetency of Joubert.

André Watson André Jacobus Watson (born 24 April 1958) is a South African former rugby union referee. He officiated a record number of finals in the Rugby World Cup (two), the Currie Cup (seven) and Super Rugby (five). Biography Watson was born in Germisto ...

, the head of South Africa's Rugby Referees, released a statement in which he defended Joubert's performance.

Player statistics

Leading try scorers

Leading point scorers

Attendances

References

External links

* * *
2010 Super 14 Trial Games
{{DEFAULTSORT:Super

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

2010 rugby union tournaments for clubs