2017 Super Rugby season
| 2017 Super Rugby season | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Countries |
Argentina (1 team) Australia (5 teams) Japan (1 team) New Zealand (5 teams) South Africa (6 teams) |
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| Tournament format(s) | Conference and knockout | ||
| Matches played | 43 | ||
| Tries scored | 293 (6.81 per match) | ||
| Top point scorer(s) | Curwin Bosch, Sharks (73) | ||
| Top try scorer(s) | Vince Aso, Hurricanes (7) | ||
| Official website | Official site | ||
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The 2017 Super Rugby season is the 22nd season of Super Rugby, an annual rugby union competition organised by SANZAAR between teams from Argentina, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. It is the second season featuring an expanded 18-team format, following the competition's expansion from 15 teams prior to the 2016 season.
After 17 rounds of matches between 23 February and 15 July – with Rounds 15 and 16 split due to the British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand – four conference winners and four wildcard teams will progress to the finals series, which will consist of quarterfinals, semifinals and a final on 5 August.
The 18 participating teams are divided into two geographical groups, each consisting of two conferences: the Australasian Group, with five teams in the Australian Conference and five teams in the New Zealand Conference and the South African Group, with six South African teams, one Argentine team and one Japanese team split into two four-team conferences – an Africa 1 Conference and an Africa 2 Conference.
In the group stages, there will be 17 rounds of matches, where each team played 15 matches and had two rounds of byes for a total of 135 matches. Due to the British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand in June and July, Rounds 15 and 16 were split; Round 15 of the Australian and New Zealand Conferences will be played on the weekend of 3 June, with Round 16 of the New Zealand Conference scheduled for the following week. The South African Conference Round 15 matches will be played on the weekend of 1 July, with the Round 16 matches for the Australian and South African conferences scheduled for a week later.
Teams play six intra-conference matches; in the four-team African Conferences, each team plays the other three teams in their conference at home and away, while in the five-team Australasian Conferences, each team plays two teams home and away and once against the other two teams (one at home and one away). The other nine matches are a single round of matches against each team in the other conference in their group, as well as against each team from one of the conferences in the other group. For 2017, the teams in Africa 1 play the teams in the New Zealand Conference, while the teams in Africa 2 play the teams in the Australian Conference.
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