2018 Super Rugby season
| 2018 Super Rugby season | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Countries |
Argentina (1 team) Australia (4 teams) Japan (1 team) New Zealand (5 teams) South Africa (4 teams) |
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| Tournament format(s) | Conference and knockout | ||
| Official website | Official site | ||
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The 2018 Super Rugby season will be the 23rd season of Super Rugby, an annual rugby union competition organised by SANZAAR between teams from Argentina, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. After two seasons in which 18 teams participated, the 2018 edition will revert to a 15-team competition, consisting of three geographical conferences.
The South African Rugby Union announced that the Cheetahs and Kings would be dropped for the 2018 season, while the Australian Rugby Union announced the exclusion of the Force.
The 15 participating teams will be divided into three geographical conferences: the Australian Conference (consisting of four Australian teams and the Japanese Sunwolves), the New Zealand Conference (consisting of five New Zealand teams), and the South African Conference (consisting of four South African teams and the Jaguares from Argentina).
In the group stages, there will be 18 rounds of matches, with each team playing 16 matches and having two rounds of byes, resulting in a total of 120 matches. Teams will play eight inter-conference matches and eight cross-conference matches; they will play all the other teams in their conference twice - once at home and once away - and will play once against four of the teams in the other two conferences.
The top team in each of the three conferences will qualify for the quarterfinals, as will the next five teams with the best records across the three conferences, known as wildcards. The conference winners and best wildcard team will host the Quarterfinals. The Quarterfinal winners will progress to the Semifinal, and the winners of the semifinals will advance to the final.
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