HOW IT WORKS
YES WE EXPLAINED THIS ALL LAST YEAR BUT IT’S HIGHLY LIKELY THAT YOU NEED A REFRESHER COURSE IN HOW SUPER RUGBY WORKS. WE DID – BECAUSE IT IS A LITTLE TRICKY TO MAKE SENSE OF.
NOT SO QUICK GUIDE
There are five teams from New Zealand, five teams from Australia, six teams from South Africa, one team from Argentina and one team from Japan.
The ‘new’ teams are the Southern Kings, Jaguares and the Sunwolves.
HOW IT WORKS FOR AUSTRALASIAN TEAMS
Each team will play six intra-conference games. That means each team will play the other teams in the conference once, and will play two teams in the conference twice. The following year, they will play the other two teams twice.
Using the Blues as an example – they will play the Highlanders and Hurricanes at home and the Crusaders and Chiefs away. They will also play the Crusaders at home and Hurricanes away. In 2017 they will play each team once – and the Highlanders and Chiefs twice.
Each Australasian team will play five games against the other conference in their group. Again, using the Blues as an example – they will play the Reds and Force away and Rebels, Brumbies and Waratahs at home.
Each Australasian team will complete their schedule by playing each of the teams in one of the South Africa Conferences. So the Blues will play a full round of games – a mix of home and away – against South Africa Two.
In 2017, they will play all the teams in South Africa One.
HOW IT WORKS FOR THE SOUTH AFRICAN TEAMS
Each team will play the other teams in their conference both home and away. Using the Bulls as an example they will play the Cheetahs, Stormers and Sunwolves both home and away.
Each team will play all the teams in the other South African Conference once. So the Bulls will play the Lions and Sharks at home and Argentina and the Kings away.
Their playoff schedule will be completed by playing all the teams in either the New Zealand or Australian Conferences. Alternating between years. So in 2016, the Bulls will play each of the Australian teams and in 2017, they will play all of the New Zealand teams.
HOW THE PLAYOFFS WORK
The top team in each Conference automatically qualifies. The Conference winner with the most competition points will be ranked one. The Conference winner with the lowest points will be ranked four.
There are four wildcard places for teams [not the Conference winners] who finish with the most competition points. They will be ranked fifth to eighth – with three coming from Aus/NZ and one from SA.
WHO PLAYS WHO IN QUARTERFINAL?
The Conference winners will have home advantage in the quarterfinals.
The highest ranked Conference winner will be seeded No 1 and play the lowest ranked wildcard – seeded No 8.
The second highest-ranked Conference winner – seeded No 2 – will play the second lowest wildcard qualifier – seeded No 7.
WHO PLAYS WHO IN THE SEMIFINAL
The highest seeded teams will have home advantage. The highest seed will play the lowest seed. The second highest seed will play the third lowest seed. The final will be played at the home ground of the team with the highest seeding.