The 2011 Super Rugby season was the first season of the new 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition, which involved teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Including its past iterations as Super 12 and Super 14, this was the 16th season for the Southern Hemisphere's premier transnational club competition. The season kicked off in February 2011, with pre-season matches held from mid-January. It finished 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.
This season saw the arrival of the Melbourne Rebels, admitted to the competition as Australia's fifth team after entry by the Southern Kings from South Africa was denied. This was also the first season of a revamped competition format, with a greater focus on matches within each participating country and an expanded finals series.
During this season, the first ever Super Rugby game was played outside the SANZAR region, taking place at Twickenham Stadium between the Crusaders and the Sharks. The match was moved to Twickenham because of the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Proceeds of the game were also donated to the relief effort.
The final was played at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane between the Queensland Reds and the Crusaders. The Reds won 18–13 to claim their first Super Rugby title.
Background Competition format Covering 21 weeks, the schedule featured a total of 125 matches. The 15 teams were grouped by geography, labelled the Australian Conference, New Zealand Conference and the South African Conference. With the new format, the regular season consisted of two types of matches: Internal Conference Matches – Each team plays the other four teams in the same conference twice, home and away. (See table below for conferences.) Cross Conference Matches – Each team plays 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). Each team plays two home and two away games against teams from each of the other countries, making a total of eight cross conference games for each team.
The top team of each conference, plus the next top three teams in table points regardless of conference (wild card teams), moved on to the finals. The top two conference winners, based on table points, receive first-round byes. In the first round of the finals, the third conference winner is the No. 3 seed and hosts the wild card team with the worst record, and the best wild card team hosts the second-best wild card team. In the semi-finals, the No. 2 conference winner hosts the higher surviving seed from the first round, and the No. 1 conference winner hosts the other first-round winner. The final is hosted by the top remaining seed.
Teams and personnel
Overview Union Team Stadia information Coach Captain Stadia Capacity Location Australia Canberra Stadium 25,011 Bruce, Australian Capital Territory Tony Rea Matt Giteau Perth Rectangular Stadium 20,500 Perth, Western Australia Richard Graham Nathan Sharpe Lang Park 52,500 Milton, Queensland Ewen McKenzie James Horwill Melbourne Rectangular Stadium 30,050 Olympic Park, Victoria Rod Macqueen Stirling Mortlock Sydney Football Stadium 45,500 Moore Park, New South Wales Chris Hickey Phil Waugh Stadium Australia 83,000 Sydney Olympic Park, New South Wales New Zealand Eden Park 50,000 Kingsland, Auckland Pat Lam Keven Mealamu Okara Park 18,500 Whangārei, Northland North Harbour Stadium 14,000 Albany, Auckland Waikato Stadium 25,800 Hamilton, Waikato Ian Foster Mils Muliaina Baypark Stadium 19,800 Tauranga Trafalgar Park 18,000 Nelson Todd Blackadder Richie McCaw Fraser Park 12,500 Timaru, Canterbury McLean Park 19,700 Napier, Hawke's Bay Carisbrook 29,000 Dunedin, Otago Jamie Joseph Jamie Mackintosh Rugby Park Stadium 18,000 Invercargill, Southland Wellington Regional Stadium 34,500 Pipitea, Wellington Mark Hammett Andrew Hore McLean Park 19,700 Napier, Hawke's Bay Arena Manawatu 15,000 Palmerston North Central, Manawatū–Whanganui South Africa Loftus Versfeld Stadium 51,762 Pretoria, Gauteng Frans Ludeke Victor Matfield Free State Stadium 42,000 Bloemfontein, Free State Naka Drotské Juan Smith Ellis Park Stadium 62,567 Doornfontein, Gauteng John Mitchell Franco van der Merwe Kings Park Stadium 52,500 Stamford Hill, KwaZulu-Natal John Plumtree John Smit Newlands Stadium 51,900 Cape Town, Western Cape Allister Coetzee Schalk Burger
Locations
Standings Conference standings
Overall standings
Fixtures
Round 1
Round 2
Byes:
Round 3
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Round 4
Byes: , ,
Round 5
Byes:
Round 6
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Round 7
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Round 8
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Round 9
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Round 10
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Round 11
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Round 12
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Round 13
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Round 14
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Round 15
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Round 16
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Round 17
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Round 18
Byes:
Finals
Qualifiers
Semi-finals
Final
Player statistics
Leading try scorers + Top 10 try scorersPosNameTriesTeam 1 Bjorn Basson 9 Bulls Sean Maitland 9 Crusaders Sarel Pretorius 9 Cheetahs 4 Rene Ranger 8 Blues 5 Israel Dagg 7 Crusaders Jared Payne 7 Blues 7 Tom Carter 6 Waratahs Jaque Fourie 6 Stormers Robbie Fruean 6 Crusaders Hosea Gear 6 Hurricanes Scott Higginbotham 6 Reds Alby Mathewson 6 Blues Drew Mitchell 6 Waratahs Luke Morahan 6 Reds Lwazi Mvovo 6 Sharks Wynand Olivier 6 Bulls JP Pietersen 6 Sharks Jaco Taute 6 Lions Adam Thomson 6 Highlanders Source: South African Rugby Union
Leading point scorers
+ Top 10 overall point scorersPosNamePointsTeam 1 Quade Cooper 228 Reds 2 Morné Steyn 216 Bulls 3 Dan Carter 194 Crusaders 4 Patrick Lambie 193 Sharks 5 Sias Ebersohn 179 Cheetahs 6 Matt Giteau 171 Brumbies 7 James O'Connor 170 Force 8 Kurtley Beale 169 Waratahs 9 Peter Grant 142 Stormers 10 Luke McAlister 137 Blues Source: South African Rugby Union
Attendances Team Main stadium Capacity Total attendance Average attendance % capacity Blues Eden Park 50,000 153,009 17,001 Chiefs Waikato Stadium 25,800 Hurricanes Westpac Stadium 34,500 72,064 10,294 34% Crusaders Trafalgar Park 18,000 133,535 14,837 Highlanders Carisbrook 30,000 76,544 9,568 35% Reds Suncorp Stadium 52,500 332,538 33,253 63% Brumbies Canberra Stadium 25,011 104,831 13,103 52% Waratahs Allianz Stadium 44,000 163,947 20,493 Melbourne Rebels AAMI Park 29,500 137,124 17,140 58% Western Force nib Stadium 20,500 129,606 16,200 79% Sharks ABSA Stadium 52,000 222,797 27,849 53% Bulls Loftus Versfeld 51,792 250,331 31,291 60% Lions Ellis Park 62,567 172,337 21,542 34% Cheetahs Free State Stadium 46,000 Stormers Newlands Stadium 51,900 364,094 40,454 77%
See also
Super Rugby franchise areas List of Super Rugby records
Notes
References
External links