Widely regarded as the world’s toughest provincial rugby tournament, the Super Rugby competition pitches the best players from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa together with five teams from each conference fighting for the win.
Launched in 1996 as the Super 12 competition, teams from Perth, Melbourne and Bloemfontein have since joined creating a tournament that runs between February and July ever year.
From 2011 the competition expanded to include the Melbourne Rebels, providing more home games and a longer format for organisers to work with.
Under the new format, each team plays the other teams in their domestic conference twice – both home and away – as well as matches against teams from further aboard.
An expanded finals system was another result of the inclusion of the 15th franchise, with six teams rather than four now fighting it out at the business end of the season.
The format has allowed for more teams to join the competition, with expansions into markets like Asia and the Americas not out of the question.