Super Rugby Unlocked (known as Vodacom Super Rugby Unlocked for sponsorship reasons) was a professional

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 played in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

from 10 October to 21 November 2020. Sponsored by communications company

Vodacom Vodacom Group Limited is a South African mobile communications company, providing voice, messaging, data and converged services to over 130 million customers across Africa. From its roots in South Africa, Vodacom has grown its operations to ...

, the tournament replaced the South African component of the incomplete

2020 Super Rugby season The 2020 Super Rugby season was the 25th season of Super Rugby, the international men's rugby union competition organised by SANZAAR involving teams from Argentina, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. It was the third tournament in i ...

that was shut down in March of that year due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Organised by the

South African Rugby Union The South African Rugby Union (SARU) is the governing body for rugby union in South Africa and is affiliated to World Rugby. It was established in 1992 as the South African Rugby Football Union, from the merger of the South African Rugby Board ...

as part of a combined

Currie Cup The Currie Cup () is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier domestic competition, four South African franc ...

and domestic

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

tournament, the seven-team competition featured the , , and from Super Rugby, with the addition of the , and . The competition was won by the , who topped the standings of the seven-week

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...

. The former Super Rugby teams (the Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers) would compete in the Rainbow Cup SA in May-June 2021 before being incorporated into the

United Rugby Championship The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

for the 2021-22 season.

Format

The seven participating teams played each other once, home or away. The top-placed team at the end of that seven-week round-robin was awarded the Super Rugby Unlocked title. All tournament points were then carried forward to the 2020–21 Currie Cup, incorporating a return round-robin of matches followed by cup playoffs. Tournament points in the Super Rugby Unlocked standings were awarded to teams as follows: * 4 points for a win. * 2 points for a draw. * 1 bonus point for a loss in a match by seven points or under. * 1 bonus point for scoring three tries more than the opponent. Teams were ranked firstly by tournament points, then number of matches won, overall points difference (points scored less points conceded), number of tries scored, overall try difference (tries scored less tries conceded) and, if needed, coin toss.

Standings

Matches

All matches for Super Rugby Unlocked are listed below:

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

On 24 October, the match between the and was postponed due to two positive COVID-19 cases found following a second batch of Coronavirus testing within the Lions squad, following earlier positive cases earlier in the week, and so falling in line with COVID-19 protocols. On 4 November, this game was declared as a 0–0 draw due to the inability to reschedule the match.

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

On 13 November, the match between the and the was postponed due to two positive COVID-19 cases found in the second batch of Coronavirus testing within the Pumas squad, following an earlier positive test during the week.

Round 7

On 17 November, the match between the and the was postponed following positive COVID-19 tests within the Sharks squad. The match between the and the was also moved from 20 November to 21 November for player welfare reasons. * Notes:

Players

Player statistics

Team rosters

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Super Rugby Unlocked Rugby union competitions for provincial teams Fox Sports (Australian TV network) 2020 Super Rugby season 2020 in South African rugby union 2020 rugby union tournaments for clubs Professional sports leagues in South Africa