Super Rugby is the major professional

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 it ...

competition in the Southern Hemisphere. The competition began as Super 12 in 1996, consisting of 12 teams from Australia,

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

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. An extra Australian and South African team were added in 2005 and the name was changed to Super 14. A fifteenth team joined in 2011 and the competition was rebranded as Super Rugby. The current format consists of three conferences of five teams from each country. Teams play other members of their conference twice (home and away) and four teams from each of the other two conferences once. The top team in each conference and the next best three over all conferences advance to the finals. In all previous formats there were no conferences and each team played every team once, with the top four progressing to the finals. The tournament is organised and governed by SANZAAR (South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentine Rugby). Super Rugby is considered a successor to the Super Six (1992) and

Super 10 The Super 10 was a rugby union football tournament featuring ten teams from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Tonga, and Western Samoa. The competition ran for three years from 1993 to 1995 and was the predecessor of Super 12 and Super 14, ...

(1993–1995), although SANZAR did not administer those tournaments.

Champions

By team

By country

Competition structure

1996–2010

Every season, each team played every other team once, in a round-robin. The venues for regular season matches alternated each year, therefore teams would not play one another at the same venue in consecutive seasons unless they met in the play-offs. The tournament used the

rugby union bonus points system Bonus points are group tournament points awarded in rugby union tournaments in addition to the standard points for winning or drawing a match. Bonus points were implemented in order to encourage attacking play throughout a match, to discourage repe ...

; teams were awarded four points for a win, two for a draw, and none for a loss. They received bonus points for scoring four or more tries in a match, and for a loss by seven or fewer points. After each team had completed their regular season matches, the top 4 teams qualified for the semi-finals. Semi-finals were held under a

Shaughnessy playoff system The Shaughnessy playoff system is a method of determining the champion of a sports league that is not in a divisional alignment. This format is also known as the Argus finals system. It involves the participation of the top four teams in the league ...

; the first-placed team in the table hosted the fourth-placed, and second hosted third. The winner of each semi-final advanced to the final, held at the home ground of whichever team amassed more points in the round-robin table.

2011–2015

In 2011,

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, meaning that Australia, New Zealand and South Africa would each be represented by five teams. The tournament format was also changed. Teams are divided into three conferences; one per country. Each team plays other teams in the same conference home and away, and plays eight further matches against teams from other conferences, for a total of sixteen games. Each team receives two byes throughout a season; from 2014 no points are added to the team's total on the day a bye is allocated. The highest placed team in each conference qualifies for the finals stage, along with three highest scoring teams which were not conference winners. The two highest scoring teams advance straight to the semi-finals, while the 3rd to 6th placed teams play-off to decide which two teams advance to the semis. The format of the semi-finals and final is the same as that previously used in the Super 14. The bonus points system has also been retained, with the single addition that a team receives four points for each bye.

2016–2020

2016 saw the tournament expand to 18 teams with the inclusion of an Argentine team and Japanese team. The South African conference was split in two with the Sunwolves in South African conference 1 and Jaguares in South African conference 2. South African conference 1 teams will play Australian and New Zealand teams in alternative years with South African conference 2 teams. Every team plays 16 games in the regular season with the top 8 teams qualifying for the quarter-finals 1 v 8 etc. with each conference winner being seeded 1-4.

2020–

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 identi ...

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 i ...

was suspended, and then ultimately cancelled. Regional tournaments were set up to complete the 2020 season, with

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 ...

played in Australia, Super Rugby Aotearoa played in New Zealand and Super Rugby Unlocked played in South Africa. The and didn't compete in these regional tournaments, while 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. F ...

competed in

and the , and competed in Super Rugby Unlocked. Only

had a final as such for 2020, with a qualifying final and then final. Following the 2020 season, the South African sides withdrew from Super Rugby, while the Jaguares and Sunwolves also left the competition. Therefore, in 2021 only 10 teams competed in Super Rugby, again in regional tournaments with the addition of

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 S ...

played between both Australian and New Zealand sides. A final was added to the Super Rugby Aotearoa competition in 2021, while a qualifying final and then final was again played in Super Rugby AU. Super Rugby Trans-Tasman will also have a final.

Tournaments

Key

Teams mentioned are those that qualified for the play-off rounds. Results are written so that the score of the team in each row is mentioned first. The highlighted team won that season's Super Rugby final. ''Note. For 1996 and 1997, it was the policy of the

South African Rugby Union 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 ...

to send the top four teams of the previous year's

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 ...

to the Super 12. This resulted in the ,

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

Northern Transvaal Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ...

and

Western Province Western Province or West Province may refer to: * Western Province, Cameroon *Western Province, Rwanda *Western Province (Kenya) *Western Province (Papua New Guinea) *Western Province (Solomon Islands) *Western Province, Sri Lanka *Western Provin ...

playing in 1996 and the Sharks, the Gauteng Lions,

Free State Cheetahs The Free State Cheetahs (formerly the Orange Free State), currently named the Toyota Free State Cheetahs, for sponsorship reasons, are a South African rugby union team that participates in the annual Currie Cup tournament. They are governed by th ...

and Northern Transvaal playing in 1997. In 1998, South Africa set up four (and later five, then six) Super Rugby regions, similar to the policy adopted by the

New Zealand Rugby Union 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 ...

. For these areas, please see

Super Rugby franchise areas The Super Rugby competition in rugby union, including teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands and, in the past, from Argentina, Japan and South Africa, is based on a " franchise" system of teams. The original member countries ...

.''

Super 12 (1996–2005)

Super 14 (2006–2010)

Super Rugby (2011–)

;Six team playoff tournament (2011–2015) ;Eight team playoff tournament (2016–)

Regional competitions champions

Due to the

, regionalised tournaments were played for the remainder of the

and the

2021 Super Rugby season The 2021 Super Rugby season was the 26th season of Super Rugby, an annual men's international rugby union tournament organised by SANZAAR, involving teams from Australia and New Zealand. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the tournament was wholly reg ...

. Those competitions were:

(Australia), Super Rugby Aotearoa (New Zealand), Super Rugby Unlocked (South Africa) and

(Australia & New Zealand). * South Africa withdrew from all Super Rugby competitions at the end of the

References

{{Super Rugby Super Rugby champions

champions A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and world championships, a ...