Super Rugby

Super Rugby
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2016 Super Rugby season

Super Rugby Logo introduced for 2011
Formerly Super 12 (1996–2005)
Super 14 (2006–2010)
Sport Rugby union
Founded August 1995 (1995-08)
Inaugural season 1996
Owner(s) SANZAAR
CEO Greg Peters
Divisions Australasian
South African
No. of teams 18
Country Argentina
Australia
Japan
New Zealand
South Africa
Most recent champion(s) Highlanders (1st title)
Most titles Crusaders (7 titles)
TV partner(s) ESPN
Fox Sports
Network Ten
J Sports
Setanta Sports
Sky Sport
Sky Sports
Supersport
Sponsor(s) Asteron Life
Investec
Vodacom
Personal
Related competitions Currie Cup
Mitre 10 Cup
National Rugby Championship
Campeonato Argentino
Nacional de Clubes
Top League
Official website SuperRugby.com

Super Rugby (rendered in the current competition logo as "SupeRugby") is the pre-eminent professional men's rugby union football competition in the Southern Hemisphere and Japan. Building off various Southern Hemisphere competitions dating back to the South Pacific Championship in 1986, with teams from a number of southern nations, Super Rugby officially started with the 1996 season with 12 teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The competition was known as Super 12 through to the end of the 2005 season; the name was changed to Super 14 with the addition of two teams for the 2006 season; with expansion to 15 teams in the three countries for the 2011 season, the competition was rebranded as Super Rugby (no number included). By 2006, matches were being broadcast in 41 countries.[1]

Organisation and competition format

SANZAAR

Main article: SANZAAR

SANZAAR is the body that administers Super Rugby, and has the Australian, New Zealand, South African and Argentine rugby unions as its sole members. SANZAAR also runs the Rugby Championship tournament that is contested by Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa following the conclusion of the Super Rugby tournament; the Tri-Nations preceded the Rugby Championship before Argentina joined the competition. The organisation was formed in 1995 to establish and run the Super 12, and Tri-Nations Tournament.

Competition format

Western Force (Blue) kicking off to the New South Wales Waratahs (White).

Prior to 2011, Super Rugby was a round-robin competition where each team played with every other team once; a team had six or seven home games, and six or seven away games each. The winner received four competition points; if the game was a draw two points were awarded to each team. The Rugby union bonus points system was also used, where any team scoring four or more tries, and/or losing by seven points or less, receives an extra competition point. The top four teams at the end of the round-robin phase then played semi-finals – the first placed team hosting the fourth placed team, and the second placed team hosting the third placed team.[2] The two winners then played the final at the home ground of the top surviving seed.[2] There were 91 regular season games in total.[3] Games were held over 14 weekends with each team receiving one bye.

From 2011 the format changed, with each country forming its own conference. Each team within a conference plays each of the other teams in its conference twice, once at home and once away. Each team then plays four out of the five teams from each of the other conferences once. Competition points are awarded on a similar basis as before. The format of the finals also changed; it now involves six teams: the top team in each of the three conferences plus the three next teams with the highest total number of points, regardless of conference. The four lower ranking teams are paired in two sudden death games; the winners of those two games each play one of the two top ranked teams (which received a bye at the start of the finals). Those winners play for the championship.[4]

History

Pre SANZAR: Super 6 and Super 10

Before 1996, a number of transnational competitions involving regional and provincial rugby union teams had taken shape in the southern hemisphere. The earliest of these was the South Pacific Championship, which was launched in 1986 and continued until 1990.

Super 6 Champions 1992
Season Champions City/Area
1992 Australia Reds Brisbane

Super 6

After the demise of the South Pacific Championship, with no tournament played in 1991, the competition was relaunched as the Super 6 in 1992. The original Super 6 competition consisted of three provincial teams from New Zealand; Auckland, Canterbury, Wellington, along with two Australian state teams; Queensland and New South Wales, and also Fiji.

Super 10

Super 10 Champions 1993 – 1995
Season Champions City/Area
1993 South Africa Lions Johannesburg
1994 Australia Reds Brisbane
1995 Australia Reds Brisbane
Main article: Super 10 Rugby

In 1993, the Super Six competition was revamped and expanded into the Super 10 tournament. With South Africa being readmitted into international sport following the dismantling of apartheid, there was an opportunity to launch an expanded competition which would also feature South Africa's top provincial teams. The inaugural competition featured the following teams: Waikato, Auckland, Otago and North Harbour (New Zealand); Natal, Transvaal and Northern Transvaal (South Africa); Queensland and New South Wales (Australia), Western Samoa (Pacific Nations representative). The Super 10 was won by Transvaal (South Africa) in 1993, and by Queensland (Australia) in 1994 and 1995.

SANZAR/SANZAAR era (1995–present)

Super 12 (1995–2005)

The official declaration of professionalism in rugby union in August 1995 led to a restructuring of the Super 10 competition. Following the success of the 1995 World Cup Australia, New Zealand and South Africa rugby boards formed SANZAR (South African, New Zealand and Australian Rugby) to administer an annual 12-team provincial/franchise based competition pitting regional teams from the three nations against each other. In addition it was decided to hold an annual Tri-Nations Test Series between the three countries. A significant reason for the development of the Super 12 was the threat to rugby union from rival football code rugby league: part of the business model for the Foxtel pay TV network in Australia was to attract subscribers by offering an exclusive product (such as rugby union) which could not be seen on free-to-air broadcast television. By setting up the Super 12, the Unions had a product that was in demand from viewers, enabling them to sell a 10 year contract for exclusive television rights to News Corp for US$555 million, giving them both coverage and financial support to kickstart the new competition.[5]

Super 12 rugby ball, 1999.

With significant sponsorship, and rugby turning a professional sport in 1995, the Super 12 competition successfully kicked off in 1996 with five New Zealand franchises, four South African provinces and three domestic Australian teams competing. New Zealand's dominance of the competition began in the first year when the Auckland Blues won the inaugural competition defeating South African side the Sharks 45 – 21 in a home final. The Blues would repeat the success of 1996 beating Australian side the ACT Brumbies 23 – 7 in the 1997 final.

The Blues then reached their third successive final in 1998 but went down to fellow countrymen the Canterbury Crusaders 13 – 20. This would mark the beginning of the Crusaders' three-year dominance as they went on to win the 1999 and 2000 finals over the Otago Highlanders and ACT Brumbies respectively. The 2001 season was the first in which no New Zealand franchise reached the final, being contested between the ACT Brumbies and Sharks with the Brumbies convincing winners, with a 36 – 6 scoreline.

The Crusaders won their 4th final in 2002 winning all 11 matches and missed out on their 5th in 2003 with a four-point loss to fellow countrymen the Blues. In 2004 the Brumbies took revenge on their 2000 final loss to the Crusaders defeating them 47 – 38 in front of a home crowd. The Crusaders would bounce back to win the 2005 final 35 – 25 against the Australian side the New South Wales Waratahs who reached their first ever final. This was the last year of the 12 team format.

From the early 2000s Australia had started to push for the inclusion of a fourth Australian team, and South Africa for another team from its country. There was also speculation of including a team from the South Pacific Island nations, such as Fiji; or a combined Pacific Islanders team from Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga. Argentina was also pushing for inclusion in the Super 12. In the early 2000s the provincial names from the New Zealand franchises were dropped, so, for example, the Canterbury Crusaders became The Crusaders. Also South Africa followed the New Zealand franchise model, where previously South African participation was decided by the previous year's Currie Cup placings.

Super 14 (2006–10)

SANZAR announced in December 2004 that a new five-year television deal had been signed that would cover 2006 to 2010, with News Corporation winning the rights for the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and Supersport winning rights for South Africa. The contract was worth USD 323 million over five years, a 16% annual increase compared to the previous deal.[5] It covers international fixtures as well as the Super 14. SANZAR remained free to negotiate separate deals for other markets, such as France, Japan and the Americas.

The TriNations is the "cash cow" for the SANZAR partners as it provides nearly 60 per cent of the money from News Ltd. The Super 14 made up about 30 per cent of the deal.

Under the new deal, Australia and South Africa each got one extra team in the competition, and a third round of fixtures was added to the Tri Nations Series.The new Australian team in the competition was based in Perth and was named the Western Force.

The addition of the new South African team led to considerable controversy, including government involvement. Finally, the five teams for 2006 were confirmed to be the country's existing four teams plus the Cheetahs, which draws its players from the Free State and Northern Cape Provinces. For the 2007 season, the Southern Spears, based in Port Elizabeth, were originally intended to replace the lowest-finishing South African team from the 2006 competition. However, the existing South African Super 14 franchises opposed the plan, which was pushed through by controversial president of the South African Rugby Union, Brian van Rooyen. After van Rooyen was ousted as president, SARU announced that the Spears would not enter the competition.[6] SARU investigated the viability of the Spears after discovering serious financial irregularities.[7] A High Court of South Africa ruling stated that the Spears had a valid contract to compete in the Super 14 and Currie Cup. However, because of the organisation's financial and administrative troubles, in November 2006 a settlement was reached. The Spears abandoned their legal case, and will continue to exist, but not compete in the Super 14.[8]

SANZAR rejected a proposal to split the Super 14 into two seven-team divisions, and decided to keep the competition in its traditional single-table format. Argentina and the Pacific Islands remained shut out of the competition.

The Cats (now the Lions) playing the Sharks.

The two new teams didn't perform all that well, the South African franchise the Cheetahs did the better of the two teams finishing 10th on the ladder notching up 5 season wins. The Australian franchise the Western Force only managed one victory and ended winning the wooden spoon as last placed 14th. The highlight for the Force was a 23-all draw against eventual champions the Crusaders, who defeated first-time finalists the Hurricanes 19–12.

During the 2007 season, 22 All Blacks missed the competition's first seven rounds as part of an All Black "conditioning programme" that was a part of the All Blacks' 2007 Rugby World Cup preparations, and every New Zealand franchise was without players for the first seven rounds.[9][10][11] At the end of the regular season, for the first time since 1998, no Australian franchise had made the semi-finals. Although the Brumbies were strong and the Western Force experienced vast improvement, it was a poor season for the Queensland Reds and Waratahs who finished last and second last respectively. Also, the competition featured the first all-South African final as the Sharks and Bulls, who finished 1–2 on the season ladder, both won their respective semi-finals. The final, held in Durban, saw the visiting Bulls win 20–19.

Super Rugby: 15 teams (2011–15)

SANZAR unveiled in 2009 its model for an expanded season that would begin in 2011. This model was based around the original ARU proposal for three national conferences: each side would have played the other four teams from their own country twice and the other ten teams once each; the season would end with a six team finals series.

There were four major compromises, designed to accommodate certain wishes of each country, that somewhat complicated the model:

SANZAR announced in 2009 the addition of a fifth Australian team that would play in the expanded "Super Rugby" competition in 2011. The licence was awarded to Victoria, Australia, and the team's name announced as the Melbourne Rebels. The Australian start-up franchise was given the nod ahead of South Africa's Southern Kings.[12] Brian Waldron, former CEO of the NRL club the Melbourne Storm, was confirmed as the new CEO of the Rebels on 11 January 2010, but resigned on 23 April after a salary cap breach was uncovered at the Storm.[13]

Expansion to Argentina and Japan (2016–present)

In February 2012, SANZAR chief executive Greg Peters announced that the organisation was considering adding franchises in Argentina, Japan and the United States in 2016, the first year of SANZAR's next television contract. This will also be the year in which rugby sevens enters the Olympics, which was contributing to increased interest in the sport in many countries, including Japan and the US.[14]

Australian sports broadcasting analyst Colin Smith noted that the addition of Japanese and American teams could result in a TV deal worth more than A$1 billion beyond 2020. Specifically, he stated, "You could have a deal comparable to the other major sports in Australia. Rugby is a college (university) sport in the US, if soccer can create its own league there and sell teams for $40 million, imagine what you could do in 10–12 years with rugby in that market."[14] By comparison, the largest TV deal in Australian sport, that of the Australian Football League (Australian rules), is worth A$1.26 billion from 2012 to 2016. Even that figure is dwarfed by the TV contracts of the NFL. That league's current contracts are worth more than US$4 billion annually.[15]

Peters added that the conference-based structure was ideal for expanding the competition to new territories, either by adding new conferences or by adding teams to the current conferences. He also discussed the possibility that offshore Super Rugby teams could be a home for surplus players from the SANZAR countries, keeping them in the SANZAR fold and away from European clubs.[16]

Prior to Super Rugby's broadcast contracts expiring after the 2015 season, SANZAR considered several alternatives for the competition's future organisation: [17]

The last proposal, made by the SARU, was reportedly driven by internal union politics. With only five guaranteed places in Super Rugby but six active franchises, the bottom team in the South African Conference faced a promotion/relegation playoff with the sixth franchise for a place in the next season's competition. Australia and New Zealand warmed to the SARU proposal, as a trans-Tasman competition would potentially allow for more regional derbies, fewer time zone complications and less player travel.[17] However, NZRU chief executive Steve Tew indicated that a competition that did not include South African teams was a commercial non-starter because of large broadcast revenues from that country and because the NZRU considered Super Rugby matches in South Africa to be critical for national team development.[18]

SANZAR announced on 4 September 2013 that South Africa will be granted a sixth franchise starting in the 2016 season, negating the need for relegation play-offs involving the sixth South African franchise.[19] SANZAR then announced on 20 November 2014 that Japan and Argentina would each be allocated a team from the 2016 season onwards.[20]

Current franchises

Argentina Australia Japan New Zealand South Africa
Location of Super Rugby teams in Argentina
Location of Super Rugby teams in Australia
Location of Super Rugby teams in Japan
Location of Super Rugby teams in New Zealand
Location of Super Rugby teams in South Africa

Although there is no official connection, the remnants of the Spears were effectively reconstituted into the Southern Kings, who unsuccessfully applied to enter the competition in 2011, losing out to the Melbourne Rebels. However, it was confirmed that they will play Super Rugby in 2013.[21]

Champions

Year # of Teams Final Losing semi-finalists
Winner Score Runner-up 1st losing semi-finalist 2nd losing semi-finalist
1996 12 New Zealand Blues 45–21 South Africa Sharks Australia Reds South Africa Bulls
1997 12 New Zealand Blues 23–7 Australia Brumbies New Zealand Hurricanes South Africa Sharks
1998 12 New Zealand Crusaders 20–13 New Zealand Blues South Africa Sharks New Zealand Highlanders
1999 12 New Zealand Crusaders 24–19 New Zealand Highlanders Australia Reds South Africa Stormers
2000 12 New Zealand Crusaders 20–19 Australia Brumbies New Zealand Highlanders South Africa Cats
2001 12 Australia Brumbies 36–6 South Africa Sharks South Africa Cats Australia Reds
2002 12 New Zealand Crusaders 31–13 Australia Brumbies Australia Waratahs New Zealand Highlanders
2003 12 New Zealand Blues 21–17 New Zealand Crusaders New Zealand Hurricanes Australia Brumbies
2004 12 Australia Brumbies 47–38 New Zealand Crusaders South Africa Stormers New Zealand Chiefs
2005 12 New Zealand Crusaders 35–25 Australia Waratahs South Africa Bulls New Zealand Hurricanes
2006 14 New Zealand Crusaders 19–12 New Zealand Hurricanes Australia Waratahs South Africa Bulls
2007 14 South Africa Bulls 20–19 South Africa Sharks New Zealand Crusaders New Zealand Blues
2008 14 New Zealand Crusaders 20–12 Australia Waratahs South Africa Sharks New Zealand Hurricanes
2009 14 South Africa Bulls 61–17 New Zealand Chiefs New Zealand Hurricanes New Zealand Crusaders
2010 14 South Africa Bulls 25–17 South Africa Stormers New Zealand Crusaders Australia Waratahs
2011 15 Australia Reds 18–13 New Zealand Crusaders New Zealand Blues South Africa Stormers
2012 15 New Zealand Chiefs 37–6 South Africa Sharks New Zealand Crusaders South Africa Stormers
2013 15 New Zealand Chiefs 27–22 Australia Brumbies New Zealand Crusaders South Africa Bulls
2014 15 Australia Waratahs 33–32 New Zealand Crusaders South Africa Sharks Australia Brumbies
2015 15 New Zealand Highlanders 21–14 New Zealand Hurricanes Australia Waratahs Australia Brumbies
Crusaders scrum against the Brumbies in May 2006

Total wins

Team City/Area Championships Runners-up Losing Semi-finalists
New Zealand Crusaders Christchurch 7 4 5
New Zealand Blues Auckland 3 1 2
South Africa Bulls Pretoria 3 0 4
Australia Brumbies Canberra 2 4 3
New Zealand Chiefs Hamilton 2 1 1
Australia Waratahs Sydney 1 2 4
New Zealand Highlanders Dunedin 1 1 3
Australia Reds Brisbane 1 0 3
South Africa Sharks Durban 0 4 4
New Zealand Hurricanes Wellington 0 2 5
South Africa Stormers Cape Town 0 1 4
South Africa Cats Johannesburg 0 0 2

Wins by Country

Country Championships Runners-up Losing Semi-finalistsTotal
 New Zealand 13 9 16 38
 Australia 4 6 10 20
 South Africa 3 5 14 22

Conference Winners

Since 2011 Australia, New Zealand and South Africa have played in 3 separate conferences. With teams playing each team in their own conference twice (home and away) and in the other conferences playing four of the five teams. The winner of each conference is awarded a home final and their region specific conference trophy.

Year Australia New Zealand South Africa
2011 Reds Crusaders Stormers
2012 Reds Chiefs Stormers
2013 Brumbies Chiefs Bulls
2014 Waratahs Crusaders Sharks
2015 Waratahs Hurricanes Stormers

Salary cap

The five Australian teams playing in the competition are subjected to a salary cap. The Australian Rugby Union decided in 2011 to introduce the salary cap because of financial pressures.[22] The 2012 salary cap of A$4.1 million was raised to $4.5 million for 2013 and 2014 to take pressure off the teams' ability to recruit and retain players.[23] The salary cap is a key component of the negotiation between the ARU and the Rugby Union Players Association over the collective bargaining agreement.[24] The fact that the Australian teams in Super Rugby face a salary cap has been attributed as a factor that makes it more difficult for Australian teams to win the title.[25]

The cap regulations have some small concessions:[26]

The five New Zealand teams playing in the competition are subjected to a salary cap.Players will be able to stay in New Zealand and get rich under a game-changing broadcast deal.Broadcasters will pay about $70 million a season for the next five years - almost double their previous fee - to own the NZ rights to Super Rugby, All Blacks and Mitre 10 Cup.NZ Rugby has already decided to boost funding to provincial unions by 30 per cent. But the two bodies have to ask what other parts of the game need more funding - and in terms of players, who should be the main beneficiaries of this increased pot of cash? The best earn close to $1 million a year from a mix of their base retainer, test match fees and endorsements.About 37 per cent of revenue deemed to be player-generated is put aside into a payment pool. There's a bigger pie for the players to share, but it doesn't always follow that there will be pay rises for everyone.Sevens contracts for men range from $30,000 to $80,000-plus a year - but most sit at the lower end. For women, the top contracts tally with the lowest men's contracts. And both genders mainly fly economy because World Rugby pays for flights to tournaments.In contrast, Super Rugby contracts currently have a minimum of $70,000 - and players must be paid at least $18,000 for having a Mitre 10 Cup contract.Even rookie Super Rugby players can be assured of making close to $100,000 a year and that comes with the guarantee of business class travel. [27]

South Africa imposes no cap of any sort.

Brand and image

Trophies

Main article: Super Rugby Trophy

The Super Rugby trophy is sterling silver and has the competition logo on a globe which sits atop of a four-sided twisted spiral; it stands at 49 centimetres high and weighs 2.7 kilograms.[28] Jens Hansen Gold and Silversmith in Nelson, New Zealand hand made the trophy which took over two months to make.[28]

On 7 February 2006, a new Super Rugby Trophy was unveiled in Wellington, New Zealand for the Super 14 competition.

On 30 June 2011, SANZAR unveiled the new trophy that will be presented to the winners of the Super Rugby final from 2011 and beyond,[29] was crafted from solid stainless steel and polished to a mirror finish. It has a height of 65 cm and a mass of 18 kilograms.[29] The trophy was designed by Blue Sky Design of Sydney. The trophy was manufactured by Box and Dice Pty Ltd also based in Sydney.[29]

SANZAR CEO Greg Peters said "The shape of the trophy is centred around three curved legs, each representing the Conferences involved in the Super Rugby competition . . . The champions trophy is the 'big one', and will become the ultimate symbol of Super Rugby supremacy in the years to come."[29]

The colour on each leg corresponds to the Conferences with gold for Australia, black for New Zealand, and green for South Africa.[29]

There are several other trophies contested during the competition; the Charles Anderson VC Memorial Cup between the Brumbies and Stormers, the Bob Templeton Cup between the Reds and Waratahs, the Ganbattle Trophy between Sunwolves and Rebels and the Gordon Hunter Memorial Trophy between the Blues and Highlanders. Every year the Super Rugby player of the year is awarded.

Logo

The Super 14 Logo, used from 2006 to 2010

During the last season of the Super 12, Coast Design of Sydney was commissioned to design a new logo for the Super 14.[30] The Super 14 logo broke away from the traditional shield formats, common to many sporting codes, and used Roman numerals (XIV), which is unique for sport in the region.[31] The game's dynamism and speed are suggested by the orbiting football which has three distinct stitches, a subtle reference to the three countries of the tournament.[31]

The Super Rugby logo dispenses with numbers, featuring a large blue "S" with a white rugby ball in the centre and "SupeRugbY" below the "S". The three stitches of the previous ball are retained.

Before the expansion to the Super 14, the Super 12 used a logo in the shape of a shield, which had the sponsors name at the top, and then the words "Rugby" and "Super 12". The lower half of the logo used three different coloured stripes, green, black and gold, the respective colours of the national teams of South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.[32]

Naming rights

The naming rights for the competition are different in the three countries:

Competition records

Team records

Single match

Season or streak

Individual records

Career

Season

Match

Domestic competitions

Each respective country competing in Super Rugby has a number of their own domestic leagues, which feed into Super Rugby teams.

South Africa actually used their Currie Cup teams as opposed to creating new teams during the earlier years of the Super 12. However, the Currie Cup is now the third tier of rugby in South Africa, below Test and Super Rugby; it is played after the Super Rugby season, and all unions are aligned to a Super Rugby team, though it is mainly the big six, Blue Bulls, Golden Lions, Sharks, Free State Cheetahs, Western Province and Eastern Province Kings which contribute the most to the Super Rugby sides.

In New Zealand, the Mitre 10 Cup is the most prominent domestic competition below the Super Rugby, in which all the respective Unions are also aligned with Super Rugby sides.

In Australia, the National Rugby Championship (NRC) was launched in 2014. The NRC has nine franchise teams as of 2015, with four in New South Wales, two in Queensland and one each in Victoria, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. Several teams that played in the former Australian Rugby Championship,[35] were revived for the NRC using the same or similar colour schemes and logos to the original 2007 teams in the same market.

Argentina, like South Africa and New Zealand, has a national championship where several provincial unions compete, the Campeonato Argentino.

Japan has a national club competition called Top League.

Media

Super Rugby is broadcast on Supersport in South Africa, Sky Sport in New Zealand, and on FOX Sports in Australia. Super Rugby is simulcast terrestrially on M-Net in South Africa. Super Rugby is now broadcast in over 40 countries; in the UK on Sky Sports, in Spain it is broadcast by Digital+,[1] and in the United States by ESPN3, which has confirmed all matches will be broadcast live or on demand. In Australia Pay TV station Fox Sports show every match live. From 2016 Australian Free-To-Air station Network Ten will start showing a full match replay every Sunday Morning of the Match of the Round featuring at least 1 Australian team, they will also show full match replays of Finals matches featuring Australian teams.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Super 14 to be broadcast into 41 countries". globalsuper14.com. Retrieved 17 July 2006.
  2. 1 2 "Super 12: The History". planetrugby.com. 24 May 2001. Retrieved 16 April 2007.
  3. ↑ "2007 Super 14 Fixtures". super14.com. Retrieved 16 April 2007.
  4. ↑ Sports Digital Media - http://www.sportsdm.com. "Super XV Rugby Format | Super Rugby News, Results and Fixtures from Super XV Rugby". Superxv.com. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
  5. 1 2 "More for players in new SANZAR deal". worldcupweb.com. Retrieved 17 July 2006.
  6. ↑ "Spears kom straks met regsaksie". Die Burger (in Afrikaans). 20 April 2006. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  7. ↑ "Spears se baas wil vir oulaas pleit". Die Burger (in Afrikaans). 27 March 2006. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  8. ↑ "Spears abandon their Super conquest". Planet Rugby. 16 November 2006. Retrieved 22 November 2006.
  9. ↑ "All Blacks pulled out of the Super 14". planet-rugby.com. 20 August 2006. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 24 January 2007.
  10. ↑ "Henry reveals his 'World Cup team'". planet-rugby.com. 11 September 2006. Retrieved 24 January 2007.
  11. ↑ Leggat, David (22 September 2006). "Getting the balance in Super 14". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 24 September 2006.
  12. ↑ Walton, Darren (12 November 2009). "Melbourne granted Super licence | Super Rugby". Fox Sports. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
  13. ↑ Rakic, Josh (23 April 2010). "Melbourne Storm salary cap scandal". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 23 April 2010.
  14. 1 2 Pandaram, Jamie (11 February 2012). "Super Rugby going global". Sydney Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 19 February 2011.
  15. ↑ Mortimer, James (11 February 2012). ""Absolute Possibilities" for SANZAR Expansion Says Peters". SANZAR. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
  16. ↑ Johnstone, Duncan (19 February 2012). "Time may be right for Sanzar to expand Super Rugby". The Sunday Star-Times. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
  17. 1 2 Robinson, Georgina (27 July 2013). "SANZAR considering splitting Super Rugby in 2016". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  18. 1 2 "Super Rugby to consider expansion". ESPN Scrum. 27 August 2013. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
  19. ↑ Adno, Carly (4 September 2013). "SANZAR boss Greg Peters confirms South Africa will get a sixth Super Rugby franchise from 2016". Herald Sun. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  20. ↑ "Japan and Argentina officially join Super Rugby". SANZAR. 20 November 2014. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  21. ↑ "Southern Kings confirmed in Vodacom Super Rugby". sarugby.net. 27 January 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  22. ↑ Brisbane Times, Big paycuts on cards as ARU seeks salary cap, 12 March 2011, http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/big-paycuts-on-cards-as-aru-seeks-salary-cap-20110312-1bs2k.html
  23. ↑ Sydney Morning Herald, Tip of the cap nudges Pocock, 3 June 2012, http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/tip-of-the-cap-nudges-pocock-20120602-1zok6.html
  24. ↑ Fox Sports, Uncertainty over Super Rugby salary cap could yet derail Will Genia's deal with Queensland Reds, 2 May 2012, http://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/super-rugby/uncertainty-over-super-rugby-salary-cap-could-yet-derail-will-genias-deal-with-queensland-reds/story-e6frf4qu-1226344316320#.Ub5lnBy0iXI
  25. ↑ Australian Times, Salary cap makes Super Rugby harder in Australia, 15 February 2012, http://www.australiantimes.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/super-rugby/salary-cap-makes-super-rugby-harder-in-australia.htm
  26. ↑ Payten, Iain (30 March 2011). "Australian Super 15 clubs will soon enter into new salary cap era". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  27. ↑ NZ Herald, Top players can now get rich at home, 16 April 2016,http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11623628
  28. 1 2 "Media Release". jenshansen.com. 8 February 2006. Retrieved 28 January 2007.
  29. 1 2 3 4 5 "Sport 24". Sport 24. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
  30. ↑ "Super 14". coastdesign.com.au. Archived from the original on 8 December 2006. Retrieved 28 January 2007.
  31. 1 2 "SANZAR launches Super 14 logo". The Sydney Morning Herald. 22 August 2005. Archived from the original on 21 March 2007. Retrieved 18 January 2007.
  32. ↑ "1999 Super 12". itip.com.au. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
  33. ↑ "Australian Rugby Union launches 2014 Asteron Life Super Rugby Season". Retrieved 21 February 2014.
  34. ↑ "ARU announces Super Rugby sponsor | Live Rugby News". ESPN Scrum. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
  35. ↑ "Mazda Australian Rugby Championship". Australian Rugby Union.

Bibliography

External links

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