2012 Super Rugby season

The 2012 Super Rugby season was the second season of the Super Rugby competition, an annual rugby union competition that involves teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, in its 15-team format. 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, followed by the finals series, culminating in the grand final on 4 August. While its three main broadcasting partners are Fox Sports, Sky Sport and SuperSport, Super Rugby can be viewed in many countries throughout the world.
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:Internal Conference Matches – Each team plays the other four teams in the same conference twice, home and away.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. 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. There will be a three-week international break between rounds 15 and 16 of the regular season.
The top team of each conference, plus the next top three teams in table points regardless of conference, 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 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.

Standings

Pos	Team	Rnd	W	D	L	Bye	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
1		18	11	0	5	2	359	347	+12	38	36	4	2	58
2		18	10	0	6	2	404	331	+73	41	31	5	5	58
3		18	4	0	12	2	346	407	−61	33	43	3	8	35
4		18	4	0	12	2	362	520	−158	37	59	3	5	32
5		18	3	0	13	2	306	440	−134	30	49	2	5	27

Pos	Team	Rnd	W	D	L	Bye	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
1		18	12	0	4	2	444	358	+86	47	30	5	3	64
2		18	11	0	5	2	485	343	+142	47	34	5	4	61
3		18	10	0	6	2	489	429	+60	58	39	8	1	57
4		18	9	0	7	2	359	385	−26	36	31	2	4	50
5		18	4	0	12	2	359	430	−71	34	50	2	6	32

Pos	Team	Rnd	W	D	L	Bye	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
1		18	14	0	2	2	350	254	+96	28	21	0	2	66
2		18	10	0	6	2	472	369	+103	50	38	6	5	59
3		18	10	0	6	2	436	348	+88	47	31	7	4	59
4		18	5	0	11	2	391	458	−67	35	47	3	7	38
5		18	3	0	13	2	317	460	−143	30	52	2	3	25

Pos	Team	Rnd	W	D	L	Bye	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts
1		18	14	0	2	2	350	254	+96	28	21	0	2	66
2		18	12	0	4	2	444	358	+86	47	30	5	3	64
3		18	11	0	5	2	359	347	+12	38	36	4	2	58
4		18	11	0	5	2	485	343	+142	47	34	5	4	61
5		18	10	0	6	2	472	369	+103	50	38	6	5	59
6		18	10	0	6	2	436	348	+88	47	31	7	4	59
7		18	10	0	6	2	404	331	+73	41	31	5	5	58
8		18	10	0	6	2	489	429	+60	58	39	8	1	57
9		18	9	0	7	2	359	385	−26	36	31	2	4	50
10		18	5	0	11	2	391	458	−67	35	47	3	7	38
11		18	4	0	12	2	346	407	−61	33	43	3	8	35
12		18	4	0	12	2	359	430	−71	34	50	2	6	32
13		18	4	0	12	2	362	520	−158	37	59	3	5	32
14		18	3	0	13	2	306	440	−134	30	49	2	5	27
15		18	3	0	13	2	317	460	−143	30	52	2	3	25

Source:
Legend:

Rnd = Round completed, W = Games won, D = Games drawn, L = Games lost, Bye = Number of byes, PF = Points for, PA = Points against, PD = Points difference, TF = Tries for, TA = Tries against, TB = Try bonus points, LB = Losing bonus points, Pts = Log points, Q = Qualification

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

Regular season

The following fixtures were released on 2 September 2011.

Round 8

Round 16

Players

Leading try scorers

Source: South African Rugby Union

Leading point scorers

Source: South African Rugby Union

Referees

The following refereeing panel was appointed by SANZAR for the 2012 Super Rugby season: