List of South African rugby union teams

Rugby union in South Africa is centrally administered by the South African Rugby Union, which consists of fourteen provincial unions – the Blue Bulls Rugby Union, the Boland Rugby Union, the Border Rugby Football Union, the Eastern Province Rugby Union, the Free State Rugby Union, the Golden Lions Rugby Union, the Griffons Rugby Union, the Griqualand West Rugby Union, the KwaZulu-Natal Rugby Union, the Leopards Rugby Union, the Mpumalanga Rugby Union, the South Western Districts Rugby Football Union, the Valke Rugby Union and the Western Province Rugby Football Union.

Each of these unions administers a senior professional rugby team that participates in the domestic Currie Cup and Vodacom Cup competitions. In addition, these unions are responsible for amateur club rugby in their region. Clubs participate in provincial leagues organised by the unions; university sides also participate in the annual Varsity Cup competition, while non-university sides participate in the annual SARU Gold Cup.

South Africa have six franchises participating in the annual Super Rugby competition. All fourteen provincial unions are allocated to a Super Rugby franchise on a geographic basis.

The six Super Rugby franchises, plus their constituent rugby unions are:

The fourteen provincial unions each have a professional team that play in the annual Currie Cup and Vodacom Cup competitions, plus youth sides in the Under-21 and Under-19 provincial competitions and youth tournaments such as the Under-18 and Under-13 Craven Week tournaments, the Under-18 Academy Week tournament and the Under-16 Grant Khomo Week tournament.

Since 2013, a Limpopo Blue Bulls team participated in the Vodacom Cup competition. Limpopo is a sub-union that forms part of the Blue Bulls Rugby Union.

In 2008, a Varsity Cup competition was created, with eight universities competing. In 2011, a second tier called the Varsity Shield was added, consisting of a further five side and the collective was rebranded as "Varsity Rugby". In addition to playing in the Varsity Rugby competitions, these sides also take part in the provincial unions' championships.