The Super Rugby competition in rugby union, including teams from Argentina, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa is based on a "franchise" system of teams. The original member countries – Australia, New Zealand and South Africa – all have several regional franchises, while the expansion countries – Argentina and Japan – have one franchise each. This article provides specific detail as to the areas covered by each Super Rugby team.
The Australian Super Rugby franchises have evolved from traditional state and territory representative sides. For most of the history of rugby in Australia, the domestic game has been structured around regional club competitions. The strongest of these are based in the state and territory capitals of Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra. During the amateur era prior to 1996, these competitions fed into the representative teams of New South Wales, Queensland and Australian Capital Territory, respectively, and those teams became Australia's three original Super Rugby franchises. Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia had similar representative teams and club structures but the game was generally not as strong in those states due to Australian rules football being the dominant code. Western Australia obtained the country's fourth franchise with the Western Force joining in 2006 and Victoria's Melbourne Rebels joined in 2011 as the fifth franchise. At the end of 2017, however, the Western Force lost its licence and was removed from the competition because the ARU decided to reduce the number of Australian teams in Super Rugby from five to four. Since 1968, several Australian provincial competitions were created that did not continue, including the Wallaby Trophy in the 1960s and 1970s and, more recently, the Ricoh National Championship, APC and ARC. The current continent-wide competition is the NRC, which was launched as a national competition in 2014.
Conference
Club
Location
Feeder Area Regional club competitions and NRC teams
Home Ground
First season
Championships
Australia
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-
-
-
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Australia
Brumbies
Canberra
Principal Regional club Competition: ACTRU Premier Division
Other than Western Australia, where the Western Force now plays in the new international tournament of Global Rapid Rugby, there are three regions that do not have a Super Rugby franchise. All have regional club competitions and a representative team in NRC Division 2.
South Australia — a substantial market with Australian rules football as the main sport. Rugby Union South Australia has an arrangement with the Melbourne Rebels for its players to be eligible for that franchise's academy team.
Tasmania — a small market and not geographically concentrated. Australian rules football is the main football code.
Northern Territory — Australia's least populous state or territory, with no major league sporting teams based in it.
Conference
Former Team
Location
Feeder Area Regional club competitions and NRC teams
The Queensland Reds and NSW Waratahs have the oldest and most fierce rivalry. ACT Brumbies also have the Waratahs as their main rival. The Force and Rebels had a short-lived rivalry before the former was removed from the competition - earlier the teams were also rivals for a Super Rugby franchise, which was given to the Force, in 2004.
Japan
Japan had a single franchise called the, which participates in the Australian Conference. It was included in Super Rugby for the 2016 Super Rugby season and represented all of Japan and its major rugby club competition, the Top League from 2016 to 2020. In March 2019, it was announced that 2020 would be the final season for the Sunwolves after failing to negotiate a contract due to financial considerations.
In New Zealand, each of the country's five Super Rugby teams are linked with several unions in the country's two domestic competitions, the professional ITM Cup and amateur Heartland Championship. For all practical purposes, all Super Rugby players will be drawn from the ITM Cup sides. The specific unions linked to each franchise are:
South Africa operates its Super Rugby system in basically the same manner as in New Zealand, with each franchise linked with one or more unions in the country's domestic competition, the Currie Cup and the Vodacom Cup. During the 1996 and 1997 Super 12 seasons, South Africa entered their 4 top finishers in the previous season's Currie Cup. The franchises were created for the 1998 season. The country had five franchises. The four teams from the Super 12 era—the Bulls, Cats, Sharks and Stormers—were joined in 2006 by the Cheetahs. Their identities are largely based around the 5 traditional powers of the Currie Cup competition; the Blue Bulls, Golden Lions, Sharks, Western Province and Free State Cheetahs respectively. In 2013, 2016 and 2017, South Africa had another team, Southern Kings, expression of Currie Cup's team,. The unions linked to each franchise are:
Conference
Franchise
Location
Feeder Area
Home Ground
First season
Championships
South Africa
Bulls
Pretoria
Blue Bulls
Loftus Versfeld Stadium
1996
3 1 South African Conference
South Africa
Lions
Johannesburg
Golden Lions
Emirates Airline Park
1996
1 Super 10 2 African Group 1 South African Conference
Following SANZAAR's decision to reduce the number of teams for 2018 from six to four, the South African Rugby Union announced that the Cheetahs and Southern Kings would be the teams cut from the 2018 competition. Instead, the Cheetahs and Southern Kings joined the previously-northern hemisphere Pro14 competition prior to the 2017–18 season.
The proposed sixth team were supposed to be entrenched in the 2007 and 2008 Super 14 seasons and were to draw from the Southern and Eastern Cape Region and based in Port Elizabeth. They became a major bone of contention in South African rugby, when it was proposed originally, that the entry of the Spears would mean a promotion/relegation system would be put in place in 2006 to determine which team would not participate in the following season's Super 14. The entrenchment of the Spears proved highly controversial; after allegations of financial mismanagement and poor results against other South African sides, the South African Rugby Union decided on 19 April 2006 to scrap its original plan to admit the Spears in 2007. The High Court of South Africa gave the Spears a potential reprieve in August 2006 when it ruled that the Spears had a valid contract with SARU and its commercial arm, SA Rugby, to enter both the Currie Cup and Super 14. Both the SARU and SA Rugby planned to appeal this decision. In November 2006, all parties involved reached a settlement; the Spears dropped their suit and abandoned any attempts to enter the Super 14. Since the Spears never joined Super Rugby, the SARU and SA Rugby had to determine how to reincorporate players from the Spears region to the other franchises. In January 2009, the SARU announced that a new SEC franchise, also to be based in Port Elizabeth, would be launched in June 2009 to coincide with the arrival of the British and Irish Lions for a midweek tour match in the city. The franchise, a joint venture between the Eastern Province and Border unions, was created with the goal of an eventual place in Super Rugby, although the entry date was uncertain, pending agreement with the other SANZAR partners. SARU also confirmed that the franchise would not assume the Southern Spears name; the team was later announced as the Southern Kings. The Southern Kings were confirmed to be drawing from the Spears' former area with the announcement of their inaugural squad in 2009. Most of the players in the Kings' debut match against the British and Irish Lions were affiliated with the team's co-owners, the Border and Eastern Province unions, but South Western Districts were also involved. The inaugural Kings side also included players from the provinces of Western Province and Boland within the Stormers' area. On 27 January 2012, it was confirmed that the Southern Kings would join Super Rugby in 2013. It was confirmed that they would replace the Lions as South Africa's fifth club. After playing just a single season, the Lions returned in 2014 and 2015, before a further Super Rugby expansion saw the Kings being included on a permanent basis between 2016 and 2017.
