Topic
The 21st Super Rugby season will be the first to feature an expanded 18-team format and the first to include teams from outside Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Joining the current 15 clubs are teams from Argentina and Japan, plus one more from South Africa. Four conferences will be played in two regional groups – Australasia and South Africa – with the new teams all competing in the latter group.
Sanzaar chief executive Andy Marinos accepts there are issues with the expanded 18-team southern hemisphere tournament, including the highly criticised home advantage format in the play-offs
Former All Black Filo Tiatia will take over from countryman Mark Hammett as head coach of Japan’s Sunwolves Super Rugby side, league officials said on Monday.
Warren Gatland has been retained as coach of the British & Irish Lions for their 2017 tour of New Zealand, British media has reported.
Wallabies back Christian Leali’ifano has been diagnosed with leukaemia and is undergoing treatment in hospital, his ACT Brumbies club said on Saturday.
South Africa’s Golden Lions face a daunting trip across the Indian Ocean to win their first-ever Super Rugby title in New Zealand after ousting defending champions Highlanders this weekend.
Elton Jantjies was the 22-point star as the Golden Lions of South Africa defeated defending champions Highlanders 42-30 in Johannesburg on Saturday to reach the 2016 Super Rugby final.
Fly-half Beauden Barrett spurred the Hurricanes to a 25-9 win over the Chiefs in an all-New Zealand semi-final on Saturday, ensuring the Wellington-based team will host Super Rugby’s final for the second consecutive year.
New Zealand’s Hurricanes are one game from hosting this year’s Super Rugby final, with defending champions Highlanders away to South Africa’s Golden Lions in next week’s semi-finals.
New Zealand's Hurricanes crushed South Africa's Coastal Sharks with a record-setting 41-0 victory to cruise into the Super Rugby semi-finals on a stormy night in Wellington on Saturday.
Defending champions Highlanders survived a tense finish to eliminate the ACT Brumbies 15-9 and qualify for the Super Rugby semi-finals in Canberra on Friday.
Super Rugby’s quarter-finals this weekend contain the scenario for tournament organisers that all four semi-final places could go to New Zealand teams.
Fullback Ayumu Goromaru is hopeful that his move to French club Toulon will pave the way for more Japanese rugby players to play in Europe.
Rising star Ardie Savea on Thursday re-committed to the All Blacks, but only until 2018 to leave a question mark over his participation in the 2019 World Cup.
Former NFL and rugby league player Jarryd Hayne has missed out on his long-shot dream of playing for Fiji’s rugby sevens side at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Australia winger Joe Tomane confirmed on Tuesday that he will be leaving the ACT Brumbies for French club Montpellier at the end of the season, robbing the Wallabies of one of their best finishers.
Cross-code superstar Sonny Bill Williams confirmed on Wednesday he will stay with the All Blacks until late 2019, spurning lucrative offers from overseas clubs and rugby league to chase his third World Cup title.
Queensland Reds back-rower Curtis Browning scored two tries to cancel out two from Sunwolves Kiwi import Derek Carpenter as the Brisbane outfit beat their Tokyo-based visitors 35-25 on Saturday.
Japanese poster boy Ayumu Goromaru is expected to draw one of Queensland Reds' biggest crowds of the Super Rugby season when he faces the Tokyo-based Sunwolves on Saturday.
Too big, too complicated and the games aren’t great either – the ever-expanding Super Rugby competition is coming under heavy fire after spreading to two new continents this season.
The New South Wales Waratahs urged Wallabies star Kurtley Beale to stay put on Friday after he reportedly accepted an offer from Wasps that would make him the highest paid player in English rugby.
Super Rugby’s Blues held on to beat the Melbourne Rebels 36-30 at Eden Park on Saturday, giving the bottom team in the New Zealand conference victory over the side that sits atop the Australian standings.
Japan’s Sunwolves stunned the Jaguares 36-28 in a pulsating clash of Super Rugby expansion teams on Saturday to post their first win after a miserable run of seven defeats.
Fly-half Garth April kicked five penalties from five attempts to give the Durban-based Sharks a 15-14 win over the Highlanders on Friday in one of the most contentious matches of the Super Rugby season.
Former Springboks coach Nick Mallett said the Japanese Sunwolves were “embarrassing” Super Rugby after they suffered a 92-17 mauling by the South African Central Cheetahs in Bloemfontein late Friday.
Australian Rugby Union recorded a deficit of almost A$10 million (HK$59.2m) last year in its worst result in over a decade, the organisation has told stakeholders.
The Bulls claimed their first Super Rugby match outside of South Africa in more than three years on Saturday when they held off tournament newcomers the Sunwolves 30-27 at Singapore’s National Stadium.
It has been a tough start to Super Rugby life for the Sunwolves and it might well get worse before it gets any better, according to Sanzaar boss Andy Marinos.
Sunwolves coach Mark Hammett will readily accept defeat in the Japanese franchise’s maiden Super Rugby season if they play with the same conviction displayed in Saturday’s 26-13 loss to the Lions in their first match.
