Super Rugby

Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, and in earlier years from Argentina, Japan and South Africa. It began as the Super 12 in the 1996 season with twelve teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, building on competitions dating back to the South Pacific Championship of 1986, and was set up by SANZAAR after rugby union turned professional in 1995. It became the Super 14 with two more teams in 2006 and was rebranded as Super Rugby, with no number, when it grew to fifteen teams in 2011. The 2020 season was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, regional tournaments followed, and from 2022 the reformed twelve-team competition, which added the Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika, has been named Super Rugby Pacific. New Zealand teams have dominated, winning 21 titles in 28 years, and the Crusaders have won the most, with 13.