Super Rugby Trans Tasman season with 12 teams set for 2022

The new Super Rugby competition is expected to run for up to 18 weeks, with a 'super round', and consist of 12 teams.

The existing five Australian and five New Zealand sides will compete, along with the expected inclusion of Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika.

Brumbies chief executive officer Phil Thomson said the club supported the move, viewing it as an important step forward for the sport on all fronts.

"I think the more that we play each other, the Australian sides will become more competitive with New Zealand sides for sure," he said.

"It's very important from a playing side of things.

"I think it's important from both New Zealand and Australia's perspective that we're playing each other on a regular basis and also from a commercial side of things. For spectators and viewers to see a full-blown competition is what everyone wants."

In April, the Fijian and Pasifika sides were awarded conditional licenses for entry into the Super Rugby competition next year.

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Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, Super Rugby began as a 15-side competition including sides from South Africa, Argentina and Japan.

The pandemic and international border closures forced it to be cancelled and reinvented into the Super Rugby AU series for the five Australian sides, and the Aotearoa series for the five New Zealand clubs.

The two series ran again in 2021, with the addition of a five-match Trans Tasman competition between the 10 Australian and New Zealand sides. However, it only included the Kiwi sides facing their Australian counterparts once, with no games played between the same country's teams.

Thomson said Rugby Australia and New Zealand Rugby were still working out whether it would be a 10- or 12-club competition and if it would be a 17-or 18-week series, with the final decision due at the end of June.

"That's certainly what we're after, a full-blown Trans Tasman competition between Australia and New Zealand, and hopefully Fiji and Pasifika also," he said.

"Hopefully by the end of June we'll have clarity around the Fiji and Pasifika potential inclusion. We're working now on what a potential draw will look like for the Trans Tasman competition next year.

"Under the model it's actually you get seven home [games], seven away and then you would have a bye in there. Potentially we're looking at round one being a super round, where all games will be played at the one location."

The inclusion of a first-time 'super round' for Super Rugby follows the format the NRL set in 2019 by introducing its Magic Round in Brisbane.

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