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Heineken Cup
The Heineken Cup is in effect the Champions League for rugby union clubs. Leading clubs
from England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France and Italy qualify to play in the Heineken
Cup. Each of the nations uses a different qualifying system to arrive at the 24
participating teams playing in six pools of four. The tournament is staged from October
to May and culminates in a Final that has rapidly become one of the biggest events on the
European sporting calendar.
Click here for the tournament
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Currie Cup
The Currie Cup is South Africa’s premier domestic competition. It dates back to 1889,
making it one of the oldest rugby competitions in the world. The tournament used to be
staged on a league basis, but since 1939 the winner has been decided by the staging of a
Final. The golden Currie Cup was presented to South African rugby by Sir Donald Currie
(chairman of the Castle Shipping Line) who gave it to W.E. “Bill” Maclagan,
captain of the first British Isles team to tour the country in 1891, with instructions for
it to be presented to the first side to beat the tourists and thereafter for it to become
the prize for an interprovincial competitition. As it turned out the tourists were
unbeaten and Maclagan decided to present the Cup to Griqualand West who he felt, by losing
3-0, had put up the best performance against his side and Griquas in turn handed it to the
SA Rugby Board to become a floating trophy in an annual competition – being won for
the first time by Western Province in 1892.
Click here for the tournament
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Tri-Nations
The Tri-Nations is the southern hemisphere’s equivalent of the Six Nations in Britain
and Europe. It also came into being with the formation of SANZAR, and is a thrilling
three-cornered tournament played annually between the Springboks, the All Blacks and the
Wallabies. The series is played on a home-and-away basis. From 1996 the three teams played
each other twice but in 2006 the tournament was expanded so that the teams now play each
other three times. Bledisloe Cup (between NZ and Australia) and Mandela Plate (between
SA and Australia) matches are often contested as part of the Tri-Nations. Moves are afoot
to include Argentina in the tournament.
Click here for the tournament
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Super 14
Established in 1996 following the formation of SANZAR - an alliance of South Africa,
New Zealand and Australia - the Super 14, which started its professional life as the Super
12, is an intercontinental, interprovincial tournament involving 14 teams, or franchises,
from the three countries. The Super 14, the first competition to introduce a bonus points
system (an extra point for scoring four tries; a point for a defeat of 7 points or less)
is run on a round robin format with all the teams playing each other either home or away;
thus each team plays 13 games. The best four teams, finishing in the top four places on
the competition ladder after the regular season, enter the play-offs. The two semifinals
are contested on the basis of 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 and are staged at the home ground of the
team that finished highest on the log. The final between the winners of the semifinals is
played at the home ground of the highest ranked team.
Click here for the tournament
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June Internationals
France and Italy will be touring New Zealand and Australia during June 2009. The two European nations will want to use this opportunity to make up for somewhat disappointing Six-Nations results, while the Southern giants finish their preparations for the upcoming Tri-Nations tournament.Click here for the tournament page |
