The 2020 Super Rugby season was the 25th season 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 ...

, an international men's

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 ...

competition organised by

SANZAAR SANZAAR (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina Rugby; previously known as SANZAR) is the body which oversees Super Rugby and The Rugby Championship competitions in rugby union. SANZAAR meets annually and is composed of the CEOs from ...

involving teams from Argentina, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. It is the third tournament in its current 15 team format, the last before the Japanese side the

Sunwolves The Sunwolves (Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or ...

withdraw from the tournament ahead of a new format in 2021. The current champions are 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 ...

, who won their 10th title in 2019. On 14 March 2020, it was announced that play would be suspended after the conclusion of the weekend's fixtures, 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 ...

and a travel restriction that was announced by New Zealand earlier in the day. Replacement regional tournaments would take place thereafter, beginning in June in New Zealand, July in Australia and October in South Africa.

Competition format

15 teams were to partake in the 2020 edition of Super Rugby. They were split into three different 'conferences': the Australian Conference (consisting of four Australian teams and the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese ), the New Zealand Conference (consisting of five New Zealand teams), and the South African Conference (consisting of four South African teams and the from

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

). The group stages were to consist of 18 rounds of matches spanning from 31 January 2020 until the beginning of June. Teams were to play 16 matches each across these 18 rounds with two bye weeks built into each of their schedules. Teams were to play each of their conference rivals home and away and then another eight matches against non-conference teams either home or away, but against a minimum of four of the teams in the other conferences. The winner of each conference would qualify for the Super Rugby finals, along with the next five best teams from all the conferences. The winners of each conference and the best placed team were to host the quarterfinals. It was planned that winners of the quarterfinals would progress to the semifinals, and the winners of the semifinals to the final, but eventually all matches were cancelled (see below).

COVID-19 pandemic

Due to the

, two Sunwolves matches were moved to Australia from Japan. It was announced 12 March that although fans would still be admitted for that weekend's fixtures, future rounds held in Australia were to be played behind closed doors. On 14 March, New Zealand announced that all travellers entering the country from outside of the Pacific Islands would be required to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival. As this would have made play logistically difficult, SANZAAR announced that the season would be suspended indefinitely following the completion of the seventh round of fixtures. Following the suspension, SANZAAR and regional rugby boards proposed regional tournaments to replace the Super Rugby fixtures that were cancelled. On 6 May,

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 ...

announced that a

Super Rugby Aotearoa Super Rugby Aotearoa currently named the Sky Super Rugby Aotearoa for sponsorship purposes is a professional men's rugby union national club competition in New Zealand. Originally created to supplement the 2020 Super Rugby season, which was sus ...

competition, involving the five New Zealand teams, would begin on 13 June. The competition will be contested using a double round robin format, with 20 matches played over 10 weeks. On 27 May,

Rugby Australia Rugby Australia Ltd, previously named the Australian Rugby Union Limited and Australian Rugby Football Union Limited, is an Australian company operating the premier rugby union competition in Australia and teams. It has its origins in 1949. It ...

confirmed

Super Rugby AU Super Rugby AU, formerly named the Harvey Norman Super Rugby AU for sponsorship purposes, was a rugby union competition organised by Rugby Australia. The competition was created to supplant the 2020 Super Rugby season, which had been suspended ...

would begin on 3 July, involving the four Australian sides in the Australian conference and the

Western Force The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby Pacific. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competition in 2017. ...

, who played in Super Rugby until the 2017 season. The

were also in discussions to take part in the Australian competition, but due to travel restrictions were unable to do so. Following this, the club was disbanded on 1 June, with the side having been due to leave Super Rugby at the end of the original 2020 season. On 16 September,

SA Rugby The South African Rugby Union (SARU) is the governing body for rugby union in South Africa and is affiliated to World Rugby. It was established in 1992 as the South African Rugby Football Union, from the merger of the South African Rugby Board a ...

announced a 7 team competition between the four South African Super Rugby sides, plus the

Cheetahs The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat native to Africa and central Iran. It is the fastest land animal, estimated to be capable of running at with the fastest reliably recorded speeds being , and as such has evolved specialized ...

from

Pro14 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

, and the

Griquas The Griquas (; af, Griekwa, often confused with ''!Orana'', which is written as ''Korana'' or ''Koranna'') are a subgroup of heterogeneous former Khoe-speaking nations in Southern Africa with a unique origin in the early history of the Cap ...

and Pumas from the

Currie Cup The Currie Cup is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition, played each winter and spring (June to October), featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier ...

, starting on 10 October. On 18 September, the official details of the Super Rugby Unlocked tournament was announced, with the 7 teams playing each other in a round robin format over the course of 7 weeks, with the domestic

competition continuing thereafter.

Standings

Round-by-round

The table below shows each team's progression throughout the season. For each round, their cumulative points total is shown with the overall log position in brackets:

Matches

The fixtures for the 2020 Super Rugby competition were released on 10 September 2019.

Players

Squads

The following 2020 Super Rugby squads have been named:

Top scorers

The top ten try and point scorers during the 2020 Super Rugby season are:

Referees

The following refereeing panel was appointed by SANZAAR for the 2020 Super Rugby season:

References

External links

* Super Rugby websites: *
Official Super Rugby website
*
Australia Super Rugby website
*
New Zealand Super Rugby website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Super Rugby

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

2020 in Argentine rugby union 2020 in Australian rugby union 2019–20 in Japanese rugby union 2020–21 in Japanese rugby union 2020 in New Zealand rugby union 2020 in South African rugby union 2020 rugby union tournaments for clubs Sports events curtailed and voided due to the COVID-19 pandemic