South Africa’s Super Rugby Generation … Never to be Forgotten

Super Rugby Pacific is celebrating 30 years of the tournament and South Africa is integral to any nostalgia, having played in the competition for 25 years and produced some of its greatest players.

The Bulls were the only South African team to win Super Rugby. They did it three times in four years: 2007, 2009 and 2010.

The Lions played in three successive finals, one in South Africa and two in New Zealand.

The Stormers and Sharks played in finals, with the Sharks losing to the best of the Blues in 1996 at Eden Park in Auckland.

The Auckland Blues team of 1996 remains the greatest of all teams to play in the competition. The Crusaders produced the most title winners and the Bulls and Australia’s Brumbies had a period of domination, but that Blues team was on another level in quality of player in 1996 and 1997.

This platform will celebrate the competition’s 30th year anniversary with a series of articles that reminds those following Super Rugby Pacific that there was 25 years of Super Rugby preceding Super Rugby Pacific.

The quality of players, from Nos 15 to 1, in those early Super Rugby years, led professional rugby’s revolution, starting with the tournament launch in 1996.

I was very fortunate to be in New Zealand and Australia for the first two months of the competition’s history involving South Africa’s four teams playing in Australia and New Zealand.

Each of the South African teams played four matches on tour, which totalled 16.

My travels took me to from Australia to New Zealand and vice-versa so often that Customs at Auckland Airport interrogated me at the start of the second month because of a suspicion I was involved in some sort of illegal scheme.

Why, they asked was I travelling so frequently in such a short space of time between Australia and New Zealand?

‘For Super Rugby,’ was my response.

I had to produce match reports on my laptop and showcase a trail of written copy, as well as my Sanzar (as it was back then pre-Argentina’s inclusion) accreditation, to convince them I was not smuggling in anything other than match previews and reviews from rugby’s first global cross-border club competition.

I had the privilege of reporting on Super Rugby throughout the 25 years of South Africa’s involvement, and the only time I was not reporting on it was between 2000 and 2003 when I was the Springboks Media and Communications Manager.

I was at Eden Park when the Blues beat the Bulls on a Sunday afternoon and Jonah Lomu, in a near walking position, strode 25 metres with half the Bulls team on his back to score. The Blues won 30-26, but it could so easily have been a Bulls win.

The launch season of 1996 was unmatched in excitement, variety and the unknown.

The Blues won the first title, beating the Sharks 45-21 in the final after they had dismissed the Bulls in the semi-final.

I knew, in that season, how big a deal it was to be able to tell the story of Super Rugby.

🏉 Super Rugby Standings (1996 Season)

So much changed in the shape and format of the competition. Expansion destroyed the original Super 12 formula of a 11 single rounds, a semi-final and a final.

Super Rugby Pacific is very different to Super 12.

But in the 30 years anniversary of the competition I knew and loved most as Super 12, I will add to the celebrations with a series of feature articles honouring the players who put the Super into the competition’s name.

I asked my Keo & Zels Rugby podcast co-pilot Zelim Nel to play selector and we came up with two starting XVs to play each other, of players we believe the streets will never forget. It is a bit different to the team I picked in 2022 as my ultimate Super Rugby XV.

Keo & Zels Super Rugby 30 year anniversary Special

Who wins between Green & Gold

GREEN

15.Christian Cullen (Hurricanes)

14. Rupeni Caucanibuca (Blues)

13. Stirling Mortlock (Brumbies)

12. Sonny Bill Williams (Chiefs)

11. Jonah Lomu (Blues)

10. Carlos Spencer (Blues)

9. Fourie du Preez (Bulls)

8. Zinzan Brooke (Blues)

7. Richie McCaw (Crusaders, openside)

6. Schalk Burger (Stormers, blindside)

5. Victor Matfield (Bulls)

4. Bakkies Botha (Bulls)

3. Olo Brown (Blues)

2. Bismarck du Plessis (Sharks)

1.Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawarira (Sharks)

versus

GOLD

15. Israel Folau (Waratahs)

14. Bryan Habana (Bulls)

13. Tana Umaga (Hurricanes)

12. Ma’a Nonu (Hurricanes)

11. Joe Roff (Brumbies)

10. Dan Carter (Crusaders)

9. George Gregan (Brumbies)

8. Pierre Spies (Bulls)

7. George Smith (Brumbies, openside)

6. Danie Rossouw (Bulls, closed side)

5. John Eales (Reds)

4. Brad Thorn (Crusaders)

3. Frans Malherbe (Stormers)

2. Keven Mealamu (Blues)

1. Steven Kitshoff (Stormers)

IN 2022 KEO picked his best ever Super Rugby XV based on Super Rugby performances and not on Test status