The 2021 Super Rugby Aotearoa season (branded as Sky Super Rugby Aotearoa for sponsorship reasons) was a professional 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 ...

. Announced on 11 November 2020, the tournament was the second season of Super Rugby Aotearoa, featuring the 5 New Zealand

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 ...

sides, ran from 26 February to 8 May 2021. The tournament was won by the , who defeated the 24–13 in the final at Orangetheory Stadium, earning them their second consecutive Super Rugby Aotearoa title, and fifth straight

competition title. The tournament ran parallel to Australia's 2021 Super Rugby AU season, and

Super Rugby Trans-Tasman Super Rugby Trans-Tasman (known as Harvey Norman Super Rugby Trans-Tasman in Australia and Sky Super Rugby Trans-Tasman in New Zealand) was a professional men's rugby union club competition in Australia and New Zealand. It featured the five Sup ...

followed the conclusion of both seasons, a crossover tournament featuring each Australian team playing each New Zealand team once, followed by a final.

Law variations

The 2021 Super Rugby Aotearoa season will see further law variations, furthering those brought in during the 2020 season. Goal-line drop outs will be brought in for when an attacking player is held up or knocks the ball on in goal. When a kick is forced in goal by the defending team then a goal-line drop out will also take place. These rules were used successfully in the Australian 2020 Super Rugby AU season. Extra time was also be used again in 2021, again consisting of a 10-minute period, however differing from the 2021 Super Rugby AU season, the team scoring the first points of any kind in this period will win the match. A captain's referral has also been brought in for 2021, similar to those used successfully in cricket and tennis, with New Zealand Rugby becoming the first to trial it in rugby union. Each team will be allowed one referral per match which can be used in one of three scenarios: a decision occurring in the final five minutes of a match, an offence in the build up to a try being scored or an act of foul play. All other law variations from the 2020 season will again be used in the 2021 season.

Standings

Round-by-round

The table below shows the progression of all teams throughout the 2021 Super Rugby Aotearoa season. Each team's tournament points on the standings log is shown for each round, with the overall log position in brackets.

Matches

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Final

Notes

Statistics

Leading point scorers

Source
Points
/small>

Leading try scorers

Source
Tries
/small>

Discipline

Players

Squads

The following 2021 Super Rugby Aotearoa squads have been named. Players listed in ''italics'' denote non-original squad members.

Referees

The following referees were selected to officiate the 2021 Super Rugby Aotearoa season:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Super Rugby 2021 Super Rugby season 2021 in New Zealand rugby union 2021 rugby union tournaments for clubs