The 2012–13 Pro12 League (also known as the ''RaboDirect Pro12'' for sponsorship reasons) was the 12th season of the

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

competition originally known as the Celtic League, the third with its current 12-team format, and the second with RaboDirect as title sponsor. Ospreys were the defending champions, but they failed to qualify for the end-of-season playoffs. The twelve teams that competed were the four Irish teams,

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

Connacht Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, C ...

and

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

; two Scottish teams,

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and

Glasgow Warriors The Glasgow Warriors are a professional rugby union side from Scotland. The team plays in the United Rugby Championship league and in the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments. In the 2014–15 season they won the Pro12 title and beca ...

; four Welsh teams,

Cardiff Blues Cardiff Rugby () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams. Based in Cardiff, the team play at Cardiff Arms Park. Originally formed in 1876, from 2003 to 2021 the first team was known as the Cardiff Blues before rebranding back ...

, Newport Gwent Dragons, Ospreys and

Scarlets The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and in European Professional Club Rugby c ...

; and two Italian teams, Benetton Treviso and newly created

Zebre Zebre Parma (, meaning " Zebras") are an Italian professional rugby union team competing in the United Rugby Championship and EPCR competitions from the 2012–13 season. They are based in Parma (Emilia-Romagna), Italy. They are operated by t ...

. The title was won by

, defeating

24–18 in the final.

Changes for the season

Italy

replaced Aironi Rugby after they had their licence revoked by the

Italian Rugby Federation The Italian Rugby Federation () or FIR is the governing body for the sport of rugby union in Italy. The FIR has one seat on the 28-member World Rugby Council, the governing body of World Rugby. (All other members of the Six Nations have two seats ...

for financial reasons. Roberto Manghi will become their Head coach for their début season.

Scotland

Ahead of this season

moved home, leaving their previous home of Firhill in the

Maryhill Maryhill () is an area in the north-west of Glasgow in Scotland. A former independent burgh and the heart of an eponymous local authority ward, its territory is bisected by Maryhill Road, part of the A81 road which runs for a distance of ro ...

area of the city for the smaller Scotstoun Stadium. They also came into the season with a new head coach, with former

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

stand-off

Gregor Townsend Gregor Peter John Townsend (born 26 April 1973) is a Scottish professional rugby union coach and former player who has been coaching the Scotland national team since 2017. Townsend was previously the assistant coach from 2009 to 2012. As a p ...

replacing Sean Lineen.

Ireland

New Zealander

Rob Penney Robin Hugh Penney (born 27 April 1964) is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former representative player. Generally known as Rob Penney he played in the positions of Flanker or No.8 throughout his career, most notably for Canterbury. He has s ...

replaced

Tony McGahan Tony McGahan is an Australian rugby union coach who is currently Head of Sport at St. Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace and a former assistant coach at the Queensland Reds. Early career Born in Queensland, Australia, a teacher by profession, a ...

as director of rugby at

, and fellow New Zealander

Mark Anscombe Mark Anscombe (born 1957) is a New Zealand rugby union coach, having played rugby spanning across 15 years. Anscombe (father of Welsh international Gareth Anscombe) has been a rugby union coach since 1994, coaching various ages and styles in bot ...

replaced Brian McLaughlin as head coach of

. In Munster,

Paul O'Connell Paul Jeremiah O'Connell (born 20 October 1979) is an Irish rugby union coach and former player. When he retired, he was Ireland's third most-capped player (108) and the eighteenth most-capped international player in rugby union history. Duri ...

stood down as captain, with

Doug Howlett Douglas Charles Howlett (born 21 September 1978) is a retired New Zealand professional rugby union player. He was primarily a wing, but he also sometimes played as a fullback. He played for Auckland, and the Highlanders, Hurricanes and Blues ...

announced as his replacement.

Wales

The Welsh regions saw a number of changes in coaching personnel, as Phil Davies took over the reins at

, Steve Tandy replaced Sean Holley as Ospreys head coach and former

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

international Simon Easterby succeeding Nigel Davies at the

, after he departed to take over at English Premiership side

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

. Scarlets also announced that Rob McCusker would replace

Matthew Rees Matthew Rees (born 9 December 1980) is a Welsh former professional rugby union footballer who played as a hooker. After beginning his career with Tonyrefail RFC and Merthyr RFC, he made his professional debut for Pontypridd RFC in 2001. With t ...

as captain. On 28 August 2012, the

Welsh Rugby Union The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU; ) is the governing body of rugby union in the country of Wales, recognised by the sport's international governing body, World Rugby. The WRU is responsible for the running of rugby in Wales, overseeing 320 member clu ...

announced a new annual event which will feature all four regions playing in a doubleheader at

Millennium Stadium The Millennium Stadium (), known since 2016 as the Principality Stadium () for sponsorship reasons, is the national stadium of Wales. Located in Cardiff, it has a retractable roof and is the home of the Wales national rugby union team; it has ...

(similar to the long-established London Double Header in the English Premiership). The first of these events took place on 30 March 2013, with an initial contract set to run for four years.

Teams

Table

Fixtures

All times are local.

Round 1

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Round 2

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Round 3

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Round 4

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Round 5

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Round 6

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Round 7

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Round 8

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Round 4 rescheduled match

This match – originally scheduled to be held during Round 4, on 21 September 2012 – was postponed due to the death of Ulster player Nevin Spence in a farming accident on 15 September.

Round 9

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Round 10

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Round 11

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1872 Cup 1st round

Welsh Round

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Round 12

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1872 Cup 2nd round

Round 13

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Round 14

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Round 15

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Round 16

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Round 17

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Round 18

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Round 19

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Judgement Day

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Round 20

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Round 21

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Round 19 rescheduled match

This match – originally scheduled to be held during Round 19, on 30 March 2013 – was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.

Round 22

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Play-offs

Semi-finals

The semi-finals were played on the weekend of 10/11 May 2013; these followed a 1 v 4, 2 v 3 system with the games being played at the home ground of the higher placed teams. ----

Final

The final was contested on Saturday, 25 May 2013, between the winners of the two semi-finals.

Leading scorers

Note: Flags to the left of player names indicate national team as has been defined under IRB eligibility rules, or primary nationality for players who have not yet earned international senior caps. Players may hold one or more non-IRB nationalities.

Top points scorers

Top try scorers

End-of-season awards

2012/2013 Dream Team

Notes

References

External links

*
2012–13 Pro12 at ESPN
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pro12 2012-13 2012–13 in Irish rugby union 2012–13 in Welsh rugby union 2012–13 in Scottish rugby union 2012–13 in Italian rugby union