Wikipedia - Super Rugby Women's
Super Rugby Women's is an annual professional women's rugby union club competition organised by Rugby Australia. It is contested by five clubs from Australia and one club from Fiji, who play a single series of round-robin matches to determine the four participants of a single-elimination tournament. The competition replaced the representative National Women's Championship with five teams owned by the Australian Super Rugby franchises, and began play in the 2018 season as an amateur league known as the Super W. The 2022 season saw the addition of a team from Fiji, and the introduction of salaries for players. The league adopted its current name in the 2024 season. Fijiana Drua are the current champions, while the New South Wales Waratahs have won the most championships (4).
History
The league commenced in the 2018 season as an amateur league. Buildcorp were named as the league's naming rights partner, while Gilbert were named as the official supplier of the league's rugby balls.[] For the inaugural season, the teams' playing lists were constructed from scratch throughout the later stages of 2018. Clubs were asked to nominate a list of desired players, with the Super W assigning two of these "marquee" players to each club. In addition, clubs were able to sign a number of players with existing connections to the club, or with arrangements for club sponsored work or study.[] In the 2019 season, the Western Force were replaced by a team representing RugbyWA.
The 2020 season was suspended following the fifth and final round of the regular season, due to lockdowns imposed by various state governments in late March, following the outbreak of COVID-19 in Australia. The planned playoff between the second-placed Reds and third-placed Brumbies, and the subsequent grand final, were cancelled in April; the first-placed Waratahs were declared champions once more. The Waratahs would finish a fourth straight undefeated season in 2021, which was played almost entirely at Coffs Harbour International Stadium in a pool format, and featured the temporary addition of a "President's XV" team composed of players from New South Wales and Queensland. The Western Force returned to the league, but withdrew after the first round to avoid the continuing COVID-19 pandemic in New South Wales.
On 2 October 2024, Rugby Australia confirmed that the Melbourne Rebels will not compete in the Super Rugby Women’s competition in 2025, with Rugby Australia stating that an investigation into the viability of maintaining the Rebels women’s program did not identify a financially viable option for either Rugby Australia or Rugby Victoria to sustain the program in 2025.