Super Rugby is the largest rugby union competition in the southern hemisphere. After starting as the Super 10, then Super 12 and later growing into the Super 14 competition, it then expanded to 15 teams for the 2011 season and has been reframed as Super Rugby, with no number included. It consists of teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The competition was started in 1996, and from the first season through to 2005, the competition was known as Super 12; the name was changed to Super 14 following the addition of two teams for the 2006 season. In 2011, the competition expanded to 15 teams, and the name was changed to 'Super Rugby'. Matches are now broadcast in 41 countries.

2011 Super Rugby season

The 2011 Super Rugby season will kick off in February 2011 with pre-season matches held from mid-January. It will finish in early July to allow players a recovery period for the 2011 Rugby World Cup to be held in September and October; in future non-World Cup years, the competition will extend into August. The 2011 season will be the first season of the expanded Super Rugby format, also introducing the Melbourne Rebels from Australia after entry by the Southern Kings from South Africa were denied. The Southern Kings, could however replace one of South Africa's previous teams, the Lions could be the unlucky team as they ended up bottom of the log in the last Super 14 season. The schedule, which covers 21 weeks, will feature a total of 125 matches. Starting with three groups of five teams, these groups will be the Australian Conference, New Zealand Conference and the South African Conference. With the new format, the regular season will consist of two types of matches :

Internal Conference Matches - Each team will play the other four teams in the same conference twice, home and away. (See table below for conferences)
Cross Conference Matches - Each team will play four teams of the other two conferences away, and four teams of the other two conferences home, thus missing out on two teams (one from each of the other conferences).