2013 SARU Community Cup
The 2013 SARU Community Cup was the first season of the SARU Community Cup competition and was contested from 16 February to 1 April 2013. The tournament is the top competition for non-university rugby union clubs in South Africa.
Competition
Format
Twenty teams qualified for the Community Cup from the club leagues of the fourteen provincial unions in South Africa. The league winners all qualified, as well as six wildcard teams chosen by SARU.The format of the Community Cup was exactly the same as the Rugby World Cup. The teams were divided into four pools, each containing five teams each. They would then play four pool games, playing other teams in their respective pools once each. Each team played two home games and two away games.
The winner and runner-up of each pool entered the play-off stage, held at a central venue over the Easter long weekend each year. The play-offs consisted of quarter finals, semi-finals and the final. The winner of each pool met the runner-up of a different pool in a quarter final. The winner of each quarter-final progressed to the semi-finals and the semi-final winners to the final, held at a neutral venue.
The losing semi-finalists played each other in the Plate final. The losing quarter finalists met in the Bowl semi-final, the winners of which played in the Bowl final, while the losers played in the Shield final.