2011 Super Rugby season

Competition format

Covering 21 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. With the new format, the regular season consisted of two types of matches:

• Internal Conference Matches – Each team plays the other four teams in the same conference twice, home and away. (See table below for conferences.)
• Cross Conference Matches – Each team plays four teams of the other two conferences away, and four teams of the other two conferences home, thus missing out on two teams (one from each of the other conferences). Each team plays two home and two away games against teams from each of the other countries, making a total of eight cross conference games for each team.{{cite web | title = How will the new Super Rugby format work?

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.{{cite web | title = Super Rugby: Conferences | access-date = 2010-09-13}}{{cite web |first = Wayne | last = Smith | date = 29 January 2011 | access-date = 2011-01-31}} The top two conference winners, based on table points, receive first-round byes. In the first round of the finals, the third conference winner is the No. 3 seed and hosts the wild card team with the worst record, and the best wild card team hosts the second-best wild card team. In the semi-finals, the No. 2 conference winner hosts the higher surviving seed from the first round, and the No. 1 conference winner hosts the other first-round winner. The final is hosted by the top remaining seed.{{cite web | access-date = 2010-09-13}}

Standings

Source: NZ Herald

Legend:

• Rnd = Round completed (games played plus byes), W = Games won, D = Games drawn, L = Games lost, Bye = Number of byes, PF = Points for, PA = Points against, PD = Points difference, TB = Try bonus points, LB = Losing bonus points, Pts = Log points

Points breakdown:

• 4 points for a win
• 2 points for a draw
• 4 points for a bye
• 1 bonus point for a loss by seven points or less
• 1 bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match

The overall standings classification system:

• Three conference winners/leaders in log points order
• Three wildcard teams in log points order
• The remaining nine teams in log points order
• When teams are level on log points, they are sorted by number of games won, then overall points difference, then number of tries scored and then overall try difference

Notes:

• The Round 2 match between the Crusaders and Hurricanes scheduled for 26 February 2011 at Westpac Stadium in Wellington was abandoned by agreement of both sides and SANZAR due to the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. The match was declared a draw, with both sides earning 2 competition points.

Fixtures

Round 1

Robbie Robinson 63'

Drew Mitchell (2) 32', 47' Tatafu Polota-Nau 44' Rob Horne 61' Phil Waugh 66' Kurtley Beale 67'

Tony Woodcock 62' Keven Mealamu 71' Andy Ellis 39'

Francis Fainifo 22' Salesi Ma'afu 71' Lelia Masaga 80'

Bismarck du Plessis 68' Jacques-Louis Potgieter 76'

Martin Bezuidenhout 57' Warren Whiteley 61' Gerhard van den Heever 17'

James Hanson 75'

Round 2

Note * : The match was cancelled and called a draw due to the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

Round 3

Stephen Brett

Nick Cummins

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Finals

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Qualifiers

;Qualifier 1 ;Qualifier 2

Semi-finals

;Semi-final 1

;Semi-final 2

Final

Main article: 2011 Super Rugby Final

Player statistics

Leading try scorers

Source: South African Rugby Union

Leading point scorers

Source: South African Rugby Union

Attendances

Notes

References

References

1. "AFP: Reds beat Crusaders for first Super title".
2. "About Super XV Rugby". www.superxv.com.
3. (12 June 2011). "Team with "Most Wins" will finish higher in Super Rugby". SANZAR.
4. (24 February 2011). "Crusaders withdraw from Hurricanes match – draw declared". New Zealand Rugby Union.
5. {{SA Rugby Match Centre. (4 July 2016)
6. {{SA Rugby Try Scorers. (5 May 2016)
7. {{SA Rugby Top Scorers. (5 May 2016)