The History of the Super 14
Posted by Hamish McBrearty on March 13th, 2007
I’ve had some requests from reader who would like to know more about the Super 14, what kind of competition it is and where it came from. I figured it would make a good article for early in the week.
The Super 14 is the only international club rugby union competition in the Southern Hemisphere featuring teams from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. It was born out of the success of the 1995 World Cup and a desire to take rugby into a fully professional era. With the introduction of pay TV coming at around the same time, News Corporation bought the television rights and the Super 12 was born.
The Super 12 was made up of 12 teams, 5 from New Zealand, 4 from South Africa and 3 from Australia. Each nation decided how it would field teams into the new competition, South Africa fielded the top four teams from its domestic Currie Cup, while New Zealand combined some provincial teams. At the time Australia only had two state teams, Queensland and New South Wales, and used the players who were unwanted by both states to form the ACT Brumbies.
The format of the Super 12 was simple, a round robin followed by semi finals and a final. The inaugural Super 12 tournament was won by the Auckland Blues in front of their home crowd against the Natal Sharks. The Blues dominance continued in 1997 when they recorded the competitions first ever unbeaten record, 10 wins and 1 draw in the round robin, followed by wins in the semi final and final to claim their second title.
1998 saw the Blues fail to defend their title when they lost the final to the Canterbury Crusaders. The Crusaders would go on to win the title again in 1999 and 2000. For the 2000 season all Super 12 teams were renamed, having previously been referred to by a region and nickname, teams were now referred to only by nicknames, so the Waikato Chiefs became simply the Chiefs.
In 2001 New Zealand teams’ strangle hold on the Super 12 title was finally broken as the ACT Brumbies claimed the title. Also in 2001, no New Zealand team made the semi finals. 2002 saw New Zealand teams return to prominence as the Crusaders achieved 11 wins from 11 games and went on to win the final, their first final win at home.
The Crusaders would make the final again in 2003, only to lose to the Blues, in 2004, losing to the Brumbies and in 2005 when they beat the Waratahs.
In 2006 the television rights for the Super 12 came up for renewal. News Corp had been very happy with the success of the Super 12 concept and opted to expand the competition to 14 teams, with a new team for both Australia and South Africa. And so the Super 14 was born.
Super Rugby, a term used to refer to the Super 12 and Super 14, has produced some fantastic rugby but has also been lampooned by some Northern Hemisphere journalists, claiming Super 14 teams have poor defences due to some of the high scoring games, or that Super 14 places too much emphasis on back play. These claims are largely dismissed in the Southern Hemisphere as jealousy and certain writers wanting to return to the days of 6-3 score-lines.
Currently the Super 14 is contested by five teams from New Zealand (Blues, Chiefs, Hurricanes, Crusaders and Highlanders), four from Australia (Reds, Waratahs, Brumbies and Force) and five from South Africa (Cheetahs, Sharks, Bulls, Lions, Stormers).
The 2007 Super 14 has already been one of the most competitive Super Rugby tournaments ever, partly due to the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) holding back 22 top players from the first half of the Super 14 for a conditioning program. With the return of several top All Blacks only a week away, the 2007 Super 14 is about to get a whole lot better.
Similar Posts:
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- Super 14: Can the chasing pack claw their way into the top four?
- Super 14: Playoff hunt hots up as the season gets to the business end
The The History of the Super 14 by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
