The 2020 Super Rugby Aotearoa season (branded as Investec Super Rugby Aotearoa for sponsorship reasons) was a domestic club

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

tournament organised by

New Zealand Rugby New Zealand Rugby (NZR) is the governing body of rugby union in New Zealand. It was founded in 1892 as the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU), 12 years after the first provincial unions in New Zealand. In 1949 it became an affiliate to t ...

. It was a 10-week,

round robin tournament A round-robin tournament (or all-go-away-tournament) is a competition in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & C. Me ...

played between the five New Zealand-based teams of

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

. The competition supplanted the

2020 Super Rugby season The 2020 Super Rugby season was the 25th season of Super Rugby, an international men's rugby union competition organised by SANZAAR involving teams from Argentina, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. It is the third tournament in its ...

, which was suspended in March due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Announced on 6 May, the competition ran from 13 June to 14 August, making it the first professional rugby union competition to occur since the beginning of the pandemic. On 8 June, with most non-travel restrictions relating to the pandemic having been lifted in New Zealand (Alert Level 1), it was announced that the matches would be played with spectators admitted, making it among the first professional sporting events not played behind closed doors since the beginning of the pandemic's global spread. Due to the reinstatement of restrictions nationally on 11 August after new cases of community transmission, one match in the final round was played behind closed doors, and the other was cancelled due to Alert Level 3 in Auckland and declared a 0-0 draw — resulting in the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

clinching the tournament championship. With New Zealand border restrictions and managed isolation requirements not easing despite the country back in level 1 alert level as of October 11, 2020, Super Rugby Aotearoa and Australia will return in 2021, and Super Rugby Aotearoa will by sponsored by

Sky New Zealand Sky Network Television Limited, more commonly known as Sky, is a New Zealand broadcasting company that provides pay television services via satellite, media streaming services and broadband internet services. It is also a wholesale channel pro ...

. There will be an increase of Sunday afternoon fixtures, which proved popular in 2020.

Law adaptions

On 2 June, New Zealand Rugby announced that it would implement two optional

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

trials being offered by

World Rugby World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international rug ...

, including a

golden point The golden point, a sudden death overtime system, is used to resolve drawn football matches. The term is borrowed from soccer's now-defunct golden goal. Rugby league Australia The golden point is used to determine a winner (where applicable, see ...

format for extra time, and that players who receive a red card can be substituted after 20 minutes. It was also stated that referees would be stricter in applying laws for breakdowns to increase the pace of play.

Standings

Matches

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

On 14 August, due to restrictions being reintroduced nationwide after new cases of community transmission (with Alert Level 3 in effect in Auckland and thus prohibiting all events, and all other regions under Alert Level 2), the penultimate match between the Highlanders and Hurricanes was played behind closed doors, and the final match between the Blues and Crusaders was cancelled and declared a draw (with both teams awarded two points on the final standings).

Players

Squads

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Super Rugby 2020 Super Rugby season 2020 in New Zealand rugby union 2020 rugby union tournaments for clubs