Champions Chiefs (1st title) Official website Official site Dates 24 Feb 2012 – 4 Aug 2012 Attendance 2,725,929 Tries scored 609 | Champion Chiefs Matches played 125 | |
Similar 2014 Super Rugby se, 2015 Super Rugby se, 2008 Super 14 season, 2016 Super Rugby se, 2015 Currie Cup Premier |
The 2012 Super Rugby season was the second season of the current 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition, which involves teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. 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 its past incarnations as Super 12 and Super 14, this was the 17th season for the Southern Hemisphere's premier transnational club competition. The conference games took place every weekend from 24 February until 14 July (with a three-week break between rounds 15 and 16 for international matches), followed by the finals series, culminating in the grand final on 4 August. While its three main broadcasting partners are Fox Sports (Australia), Sky Sport (New Zealand) and SuperSport (South Africa), Super Rugby can be viewed in many countries throughout the world.
Contents
The Chiefs, based in Hamilton, New Zealand, claimed their first-ever title in the competition's history, defeating the Durban-based Sharks 37–6 in the final held on 4 August at the Chiefs' home of Waikato Stadium.
Competition format
Covering 24 weeks, the schedule featured a total of 125 matches. The 15 teams are grouped by geography, labelled the Australian Conference, New Zealand Conference and the South African Conference. The regular season consists 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), advance to the finals. 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 #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 #2 conference winner hosts the higher surviving seed from the first round, and the #1 conference winner hosts the other first-round winner. The final is hosted by the top remaining seed.
Standings
Source: sanzarrugby.com
Legend:
Points breakdown:
The Overall Standings classification system:
Regular season
The following fixtures were released on 2 September 2011.
Referees
The following refereeing panel was appointed by SANZAR for the 2012 Super Rugby season: