Super14Rugby

Super 14 Rugby is a competition between 14 team franchises spanning 3 countries, including New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

The competition was officially born in 1993 as the "Super 10" out of several tournaments preceding it, the Super Six, and CANZ series between Australia and New Zealand. South Africa was re-admitted to international sport, and the new competition was created to include the third southern hemisphere country.

The contests popularity grew quickly that subsequent franchises were added, bringing the current numbers to 14.

The competition today (as of the 2009 season) comprises the following teams:

From New Zealand:

• Blues (Auckland)
• Chiefs (Waikato)
• Hurricanes (Wellington)
• Crusaders (Canterbury)
• Highlanders (Otago)

From South Africa:

• Bulls (Pretoria)
• Lions (Johannesburg)
• Cheetahs (Bloemfontein)
• Sharks (KZN/Durban)
• Stormers (Cape Town/Western Cape)

From Australia:

• Western Force (Perth)
• Brumbies (ACT)
• Waratahs (Sydney/NSW)
• Reds (Queensland)

There are rumours amongst rugby fans and commentators that the Series is set to expand yet again, to include 4 more teams, to bring the number of competing franchises to 18.

This would be most likely to include the following possible franchises:

• Australia (Melbourne)
• New Zealand (TBA)
• South Africa (Eastern Cape)

The fourth rumoured future franchise is supposedly going comprise a team of combined Japanese, and Pacific Islander (Tonga/Fiji/Samoa etc) players, which would certainly be the most exciting thing to happen in this competition, if only to equalise the travel required by each of the teams during the course of the competition!

To add even more fire and flavour to this already volatile and hotly contested competition, a further rumour that instead of just 4 new teams, a further 2 could be added, comprised of players from Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile, where there is a great tradition of rugby playing, and owing to the brilliant showing of the Argentinean national side during the 2007 World Cup, a large shift in popularity, for the better.

As much as the competition might expand to phase in all these new teams, it is important that this competition remain essentially one comprised of Southern Hemisphere countries.

What would be particularly exciting to see would be something similar developed in the northern hemisphere, beyond mere club rugby, and from there to develop a big North vs South concept especially during the barren years, when there is no world cup, or British and Irish Lions Tour.