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2017 Super Rugby season

The 2017 Super Rugby season was 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 was 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 2017 mid-year rugby union internationals and British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand – four conference winners and four wildcard teams progressed to the finals series, which will consist of quarterfinals, semifinals and a final on 5 August.

Competition format[edit]

The 18 participating teams were 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.^[1]

In the group stages, there were 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 & 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 were 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 were 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 played six intra-conference matches; in the four-team African Conferences, each team played the other three teams in their conference at home and away, while in the five-team Australasian Conferences, each team played two teams home and away and once against the other two teams (one at home and one away). The other nine matches were 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 played the teams in the New Zealand Conference, while the teams in Africa 2 played the teams in the Australian Conference.

The top team in each of the four conferences qualified for the quarterfinals. The next three highest-ranked teams in the Australasian Group and the next highest-ranked team in the South African group also qualified to the quarterfinals as wildcards. The conference winners were seeded #1 to #4 for the quarterfinals, in order of log points gained during the group stages, while the wildcards were seeded as #5 to #8 in order of log points gained during the group stages.

In the quarterfinals, the conference winners hosted the first round of the finals, with the highest-seeded conference winner hosting the fourth-seeded wildcard entry, the second-seeded conference winner hosting the third-seeded wildcard entry, the third-seeded conference winner hosting the second-seeded wildcard entry and the fourth-seeded conference winner hosting the top-seed wildcard entry.

The quarterfinal winners progressed to the semifinals. Instead of the following the Shaughnessy playoff format used from 1996 to 2016, the semi-finals were drawn according to a predetermined bracket.^[2] Under the new format, the winner of Quarter-final 1 (which featured the highest-seeded conference winner and the lowest-seeded wildcard) will play the winner of Quarter-final 4 (which featured the fourth-seeded conference winner and the highest-seeded wildcard) and likewise with the winners of Quarter-finals 2 and 3. The two semi-final hosts were the highest-seeded winners of their respective quarter-finals.

The winners of the semifinals advanced to the final, at the venue of the highest-seeded team.

Changes for 2018[edit]

On 9 April 2017, SANZAAR announced that the competition would return to a 15-team format for 2018, with two teams from South Africa and one team from Australia being dropped. To ensure five-team conferences, Japanese side the Sunwolves would move from the South African Conference to the Australian Conference.^[3]

On 7 July 2017, the South African Rugby Union confirmed that the Cheetahs and Southern Kings were the South African teams that would not participate in the competition going forward,^[4] and both those teams joined the Pro14 competition from the 2017–18 season onwards.^[5]

Standings[edit]

The final standings for the 2017 Super Rugby season were:^[6]

2017 Super Rugby standings: Australasian Group

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
1	Crusaders	15	14	0	1	544	303	+241	77	37	7	0	63	Conference leaders Qualify to finals
2	Brumbies	15	6	0	9	315	279	+36	41	32	3	7	34
3	Hurricanes	15	12	0	3	596	272	+324	89	31	9	1	58	Wildcard teams Qualify to finals
4	Chiefs	15	12	1	2	433	292	+141	55	30	6	1	57
5	Highlanders	15	11	0	4	488	308	+180	62	40	5	2	51
6	Blues	15	7	1	7	425	391	+34	55	50	4	3	37
7	Force	15	6	0	9	313	404	−91	36	55	1	1	26	Dropped from Super Rugby for the 2018 season
8	Reds	15	4	0	11	321	479	−158	46	61	1	4	21
9	Waratahs	15	4	0	11	396	522	−126	52	68	1	2	19
10	Rebels	15	1	1	13	236	569	−333	23	79	0	3	9

2016 Super Rugby standings: South African Group

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
1	Lions	15	14	0	1	590	268	+322	81	27	9	0	65	Conference leaders Qualify to finals
2	Stormers	15	10	0	5	490	436	+54	64	61	3	0	43
3	Sharks	15	9	1	5	392	323	+69	38	37	1	3	42	Wildcard teams Qualify to finals
4	Jaguares	15	7	0	8	404	386	+18	49	45	1	4	33
5	Southern Kings	15	6	0	9	391	470	−79	49	60	1	3	28	Dropped from Super Rugby for the 2018 season
6	Cheetahs	15	4	0	11	395	551	−156	46	75	1	4	21
7	Bulls	15	4	0	11	339	459	−120	39	59	0	4	20
8	Sunwolves	15	2	0	13	315	671	−356	41	96	1	3	12

Australian Conference Pos Team v t e Pts 1 Brumbies 34 2 Force 26 3 Reds 21 4 Waratahs 19 5 Rebels 9 New Zealand Conference Pos Team v t e Pts 1 Crusaders 63 2 Hurricanes 58 3 Chiefs 57 4 Highlanders 51 5 Blues 37 Africa 1 Conference Pos Team v t e Pts 1 Stormers 43 2 Cheetahs 21 3 Bulls 20 4 Sunwolves 12 Africa 2 Conference Pos Team v t e Pts 1 Lions 65 2 Sharks 42 3 Jaguares 33 4 Southern Kings 28

Overall Pos Team v t e Pts Qualification 1 Lions 65 Conference leaders Qualify to finals 2 Crusaders 63 3 Stormers 43 4 Brumbies 34 5 Hurricanes 58 Wildcard teams Qualify to finals 6 Chiefs 57 7 Highlanders 51 8 Sharks 42 9 Blues 37 10 Jaguares 33 11 Southern Kings 28 Dropped from Super Rugby for the 2018 season 12 Force 26 13 Cheetahs 21 14 Reds 21 15 Bulls 20 16 Waratahs 19 17 Sunwolves 12 18 Rebels 9 Source: [6]

Round-by-round[edit]

The table below shows each team's progression throughout the season. For each round, their cumulative points total is shown with the overall log position in brackets:

Matches[edit]

The fixtures for the 2017 Super Rugby competition were released on 20 September 2016.^[8] The following matches were played during the regular season:

Finals[edit]

The four conference winners advanced to the Quarter Finals, where they had home advantage against four wildcard teams, which consisted of the third to fifth-ranked teams in the Australasian Group and the third-ranked team in the South African Group.

The final seedings of these teams were:^[9]

Conference leaders
Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
1	Lions	15	14	0	1	590	268	+322	81	27	9	0	65
2	Crusaders	15	14	0	1	544	303	+241	77	37	7	0	63
3	Stormers	15	10	0	5	490	436	+54	64	61	3	0	43
4	Brumbies	15	6	0	9	315	279	+36	41	32	3	7	34
Wildcard teams
5	Hurricanes	15	12	0	3	596	272	+324	89	31	9	1	58
6	Chiefs	15	12	1	2	433	292	+141	55	30	6	1	57
7	Highlanders	15	11	0	4	488	308	+180	62	40	5	2	51
8	Sharks	15	9	1	5	392	323	+69	38	37	1	3	42

The play-off fixtures were as follows:

Quarterfinals[edit]

	21 July 2017	Brumbies	16–35	Hurricanes	GIO Stadium, Canberra
	19:35	Try: James Dargaville  3' Joshua Mann-Rea  15' Pen: Wharenui Hawera  11', 28' (2/2)	Report[10] Scoreboard[11]	Try: Wes Goosen  7', 75' Jordie Barrett  25' TJ Perenara  68' Con: Jordie Barrett  25', 69', 76' (3/4) Pen: Jordie Barrett  38', 48', 65' (3/3) Cards: Jeffery Toomaga-Allen 40' to 50'	Attendance: 9,971 Referee: Glen Jackson

	22 July 2017	Crusaders	17–0	Highlanders	AMI Stadium, Christchurch
	19:35	Try: Joe Moody  32' Codie Taylor  39' Con: Richie Mo'unga  33', 40' (2/2) Pen: Richie Mo'unga  5' (1/4)	Report[13] Scoreboard[14]	Cards: Liam Squire 4' to 14'	Attendance: 11,000[12] Referee: Angus Gardner

	22 July 2017	Lions	23–21	Sharks	Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg
	14:30	Try: Franco Mostert  47' Jaco Kriel  51' Lionel Mapoe  60' Con: Elton Jantjies  61' Pen: Elton Jantjies  9' Ruan Combrinck  77' Cards: Franco Mostert 64' to 74'	Report[16] Scoreboard[17]	Try: Kobus van Wyk  10' Dan du Preez  65' Con: Curwin Bosch  66' Pen: Curwin Bosch  34', 39' Drop: Curwin Bosch  16' Cards: Stephan Lewies 45' to 55'	Attendance: 26,000[15] Referee: Marius van der Westhuizen

	22 July 2017	Stormers	11–17	Chiefs	Newlands Stadium, Cape Town
	17:00	Try: Siya Kolisi  44' Pen: SP Marais  23', 62' (2/3)	Report[19] Scoreboard[20]	Try: Shaun Stevenson  75' Pen: Damian McKenzie  29', 31', 38', 51' (4/4) Cards: Sam Cane 59' to 69'	Attendance: 27,500[18] Referee: Jaco Peyper

Semifinals[edit]

	29 July 2017	Crusaders	27–13	Chiefs	AMI Stadium, Christchurch
	19:35	Try: Bryn Hall  16' Israel Dagg  48' Seta Tamanivalu  57', 72' Con: Richie Mo'unga  17', 58' (2/4) Pen: Richie Mo'unga  13' (1/1)	Report[22] Scoreboard[23]	Try: Brodie Retallick  77' Con: Damian McKenzie  77' (1/1) Pen: Damian McKenzie  26', 37' (2/2)	Attendance: 13,000[21] Referee: Glen Jackson

	29 July 2017	Lions	44–29	Hurricanes	Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg
	14:30	Try: Jacques van Rooyen  38' Ross Cronjé  43' Malcolm Marx  52' Harold Vorster  61' Elton Jantjies  68' Kwagga Smith  73' Con: Elton Jantjies  39', 45', 62', 69' (4/6) Pen: Elton Jantjies  4', 58' (2/2)	Report[25] Scoreboard[26]	Try: TJ Perenara  6' Wes Goosen  10' Ardie Savea  29' Ngani Laumape  55' Con: Jordie Barrett  11', 56' (2/3) Beauden Barrett  30' (1/1) Pen: Jordie Barrett  19' (1/2) Cards: Beauden Barrett 57' to 67'	Attendance: 27,908[24] Referee: Jaco Peyper

Final[edit]

	5 August 2017	Lions	17–25	Crusaders	Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg
	16:00	Try: Malcolm Marx  63' Corné Fourie  72' Con: Elton Jantjies  64', 72' (2/2) Pen: Elton Jantjies  26' (1/1) Cards: Kwagga Smith  38'	Report[27] Scoreboard[28]	Try: Seta Tamanivalu  7' Jack Goodhue  11' Kieran Read  42' Con: Richie Mo'unga  8', 43' (2/3) Pen: Richie Mo'unga  40', 52' (2/2)	Referee: Jaco Peyper

Players[edit]

Squads[edit]

The following squads were named for the 2017 Super Rugby season:

Referees[edit]

The following refereeing panel was appointed by SANZAAR for the 2017 Super Rugby season:^[29]

Attendances[edit]

Team	Main Stadium	Capacity	Total Attendance	Average Attendance	% Capacity
Blues	Eden Park	50,000
Chiefs	Waikato Stadium	25,800
Hurricanes	Westpac Stadium	34,500	132,667	16,583	50%
Crusaders	Rugby League Park	18,000
Highlanders	Forsyth Barr Stadium	30,728
Reds	Suncorp Stadium	52,500	105,806	15,115	28%
Brumbies	Canberra Stadium	25,011	79,093	9,886	39%
Waratahs	Sydney Football Stadium	44,000	101,499	14,499	32%
Melbourne Rebels	AAMI Park	29,500
Force	nib Stadium	20,500
Sharks	ABSA Stadium	52,000
Bulls	Loftus Versfeld	51,792
Lions	Ellis Park	62,567
Southern Kings	Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium	48,000	68,965	9,852	20%
Cheetahs	Free State Stadium	46,000
Stormers	Newlands Stadium	51,900
Jaguares	José Amalfitani Stadium	49,640	71,916	8,989	18%
Sunwolves	Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium	27,188