Key facts
- Formerly
- Super 12 (1996–2005) Super 14 (2006–2010)
- Sport
- Rugby union
- Founded
- 1996 ; 30 years ago ( 1996 )
- Owner
- SANZAAR
- Ceo
- Jack Mesley
- Country
- Australia (4 teams) Fiji (1 team) New Zealand (5 teams) Pacific Islands (1 team)
- Most recent champion
- Crusaders , ( 2025 , 13th title)
- Most titles
- Crusaders (13 titles)
- Broadcaster
- See broadcasters
- Related competitions
- Super Rugby Women's Super Rugby Aupiki
- Official website
- super.rugby
via Wikipedia infobox
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the Super 12 in the 1996 season with 12 teams from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, building on competitions dating back to the South Pacific Championship in 1986. The Super 12 was established by SANZAR after the sport became professional in 1995. After the COVID-19 pandemic forced the competition to split into three, the reformed competition in 2021 only included teams from Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific islands.
The name was changed to Super 14 with the addition of two teams for the 2006 season, and with expansion to 15 teams for the 2011 season, the competition was rebranded as Super Rugby (with no number). In 2016 two new teams, the Jaguares from Argentina and Sunwolves from Japan, joined the competition, playing in two newly separated African groups. In 2018, the Cheetahs, Kings and Western Force were dropped, leaving 15 teams. The Sunwolves left the competition before the end of the 2020 season.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Super Rugby” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.