Super 14

Rugby fans in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand are patiently waiting for the start of the 2011 Super Rugby season. The Bulls are the defending Super 14 champions at the moment. They beat the Stormers in May 2010 at Orlando Stadium in Soweto to win their 3rd Super Rugby title. The Super 14 tournament has been renamed to the Super 15, the main reason being the addition of a 5th Australian team (the Melbourne Rebels) to the competition. The format of the competition has also been changed and the amount of matches have been increased from 94 to 124. The Super 15 will have more local derbies and will include an extended finals series. From now on the tournament will run until July in a Rugby World cup year and until August in non-World Cup years. Australia, New Zealand and South Africa will each host at least 40 matches. The Super 15 will have 3 pools or geographic conferences (each containing 5 teams). Australia, South Africa and New Zealand will each host one pool. The 3-week finals series will be involving 6 teams (as opposed to the current 2-week playoffs for 4 teams). At the end of the regular season matches, the top team in each conference will qualify for the finals. The other 3 teams to qualify will be the sides with the most number of competition points (regardless in which Conference they are based). The Conference winners are also ensured of a home finals match. Therefore, at least one finals match will be played in each country each year.

This is the complete 2011 Super 15 Match Schedule for the round robin matches:

Please note that these dates, times and venues are subject to change. The schedule for the 3 week final matches will be posted closer to the team in 2011. It looks like the Super 15 is going to be a lot tougher than any Super rugby tournaments before it. Let’s hope this new format breeds some brilliant competition, sportsmanship and some excellent Rugby.

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