The Super 6 is a professional league for Scottish

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 ...

clubs, which began in 2019. As of 2022, the league consists of three competitions; * FOSROC Super6 Sprint Season - running from April to June, involving a single round robin, followed by two further matches to decide final positions; * FOSROC Super 6 Pro-Alignment Match - a one-off representative game between the best players from the 'Edinburgh' affiliated clubs and 'Glasgow' affiliated clubs, similar in some ways to

State of Origin A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Oval ...

; * FOSROC Super6 Championship, the primary competition of the three, involving a full double round robin, and a series of play-offs. The league is designed to bridge the gap between the amateur grade and the fully professional

United Rugby Championship 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 ...

teams. Six clubs contest the league. In 2019, they entered into a contract for 5 years and there is planned to be no relegation in that period. The top level of club rugby in Scotland consists of the two professional teams -

Edinburgh Rugby Edinburgh Rugby (formerly Edinburgh Reivers, Edinburgh Gunners) is one of the two professional rugby union teams from Scotland. The club competes in the United Rugby Championship, along with the Glasgow Warriors, its oldest rival. Edinburgh play ...

and

Glasgow Warriors Glasgow Warriors are a professional rugby union side from Scotland. The team plays in the United Rugby Championship league and in the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments. In the 2014–15 season they won the Pro12 title and became t ...

- that play in the

competition. They assign their players to the clubs below in a Pro-Draft; so that they can still play when not used by the professional sides.

Concept

Six clubs were awarded licences to play in the new Super 6 league by the Scottish Rugby Union. The idea of the Super 6 was to bridge a perceived gap between the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

and the then

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 ...

league (now the

league) level to aid player progression. The six clubs will be turned into professional clubs with a squad budget of £125,000 each. Every team will have a 35-man squad.

Seasons

The Super 6 tournament began in November 2019 after the rugby world cup of that year. It was planned that the clubs would play 20 fixtures in total: 10 fixtures against one another home and away and then 2 play-off matches - which would conclude the Super 6 fixtures. A further 8 matches scheduled against non-Scottish clubs would then be played by the Super 6 clubs but this was to be outside the Super 6 competition. The first season was curtailed after the league finished and there were no play-off matches due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tournament did not run in season 2020-21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ayrshire Bulls became the inaugural Super 6 champions after defeating The Southern Knights at Dam Park in the playoff final. In November 2021, plans were announced that the tournament would be expanded in 2022 to include two new teams, including one from Glasgow and English based

RFU Championship The RFU Championship is an English rugby union competition comprising twelve clubs. It is the second level of men’s English rugby and is played by both professional and semi-professional players. The competition has existed since 1987, when ...

London Scottish.

Criticism

There has been a number of controversies surrounding the creation of the new league:- some argued that the gap between the Scottish Premiership and Pro14 isn't that great. For a so-called 'amateur' league,

sides often played well against professional sides.

Glasgow Hawks Glasgow Hawks is an amateur rugby union team in Glasgow, Scotland. They were Premiership Division One champions for three consecutive seasons from 2003–04 to 2005–06. History In Paris on 27 August 1995 a meeting of the International Rugby ...

famously beating

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

in February 1998 a case in point. The main criticism of the new league is the geographical split. No less than half the league's clubs are based in Edinburgh. There are no clubs from Scotland's biggest city, Glasgow - even though Glasgow Hawks did apply to join; and

in the city markedly on the up with

regularly selling out

Scotstoun Stadium Scotstoun Stadium is an athletics and rugby union stadium in Scotstoun, an area in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland. Glasgow Warriors have trained at the facility since 2009 and have played their home games here from the 2012–13 season ...

and providing the

with their highest ever attendance for a final. Similarly there are no clubs from Aberdeen, Dundee or Inverness represented, although only

Dundee HSFP Dundee HSFP is a former rugby union team that played their home games at the Mayfield Playing Fields, Dundee, Scotland. The club disbanded in 2021. The team was founded in 1880 by former pupils of the High School of Dundee. The men's side play ...

applied to join out of the clubs from those cities. This, it is argued, does not help the game grow in Scotland. Another argument is money. The initial money, capped by the

Scottish Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; gd, Aonadh Rugbaidh na h-Alba) is the governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Styled as Scottish Rugby, it is the second oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league s ...

, will only provide players with essentially a part time wage. Thus, most will need to secure other employment. Again, sceptics may point to this as not helping the players develop.

Clubs

References

{{Top-level rugby union club competitions Rugby union leagues in Scotland 2019 establishments in Scotland

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Sports leagues established in 2019 Super 6 (rugby union) Professional sports leagues in the United Kingdom