2013 Super Rugby season
| 2013 Super Rugby season | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Countries |
Australia (5 teams) New Zealand (5 teams) South Africa (5 teams) |
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| Tournament format(s) | Round-robin and knockout | ||
| Champions | Chiefs (2nd title) | ||
| Matches played | 125 | ||
| Attendance | 2,547,978 (20,384 per match) | ||
| Tries scored | 596 (4.77 per match) | ||
| Top point scorer(s) | Morné Steyn (248) | ||
| Top try scorer(s) | Frank Halai (10) | ||
| Official website | Official website | ||
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The 2013 Super Rugby season was the third season of the new 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition involving teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The tournament was won by the Chiefs, who defeated the Canberra-based Brumbies 27–22 in the competition final. For sponsorship reasons, this competition is known as FxPro Super Rugby in Australia, Investec Super Rugby in New Zealand and Vodacom Super Rugby in South Africa. Including the past incarnations as Super 12 and Super 14, this was the 18th season of the Southern Hemisphere's premier domestic competition. Conference matches took place every weekend from 15 February until 13 July – with a break between rounds 17 and 18 for internationals games – followed by the play-offs series that culminated in the final on 3 August.
The 2013 season saw the Kings of South Africa enter the competition for the first time, having replaced the under-performing Lions. The Kings achieved three victories in their inaugural tournament, but finished last following the regular season, and were defeated by the Lions in a two-leg play-off for a position in the South African conference for the 2014 season.
Covering 25 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. The regular season consisted of two types of matches:
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, received first-round byes. In the first round of the finals, the third conference winner was the #3 seed and hosted the wild card team with the worst record, and the best wild card team hosted the second-best wild card team. In the semi-finals, the #2 conference winner hosted the higher surviving seed from the first round, and the #1 conference winner hosted the other first-round winner. The final is hosted by the top remaining seed.
In addition, a two-legged promotion/relegation play-off took place at the end of the season between the bottom team in the South African Conference and the Lions, with the winner qualifying for Super Rugby in 2014.
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