Vodafone Super Rugby Australia is planned to kick-off on Friday, 3rd July when the Queensland Reds host the NSW Waratahs in Brisbane.
Super Rugby Australia will comprise the four Super Rugby clubs: Brumbies, Reds, Rebels and Waratahs, plus the Western Force, who were part of Super Rugby until 2017 and will return for 2020 as part of Australia’s reformatted competition.
The five-team competition will be contested over 12 consecutive weeks, with 10 weeks of round-robin action, with teams to face each other twice and have two byes each, before a two-week finals series featuring a Qualifying Final on 12th September and a Final on 19th September.
All teams will start on zero competition points under the revised domestic format, with the 15-team three-conference Vodafone Super Rugby competition abandoned for 2020 after seven rounds.
The new season gets underway with the longest-running rivalry in Australian rugby when the Queensland Reds host the NSW Waratahs at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Friday, 3rd July. The following night in Canberra, the Brumbies will host the Melbourne Rebels.
The SANZAAR tournaments will be the first professional rugby competitions to launch since the global Covid-19 shutdown in March. Western Force will begin its campaign in Round 2 after an opening round bye.
All matches to kick off the Vodafone Super Rugby Australia season will be played behind closed doors.
