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 Super 12 in the 1996 season with 12 teams from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, building on competitions dating back to the South Pacific Championship in 1986. The Super 12 was established by SANZAR after the sport became professional in 1995. After the COVID-19 pandemic forced the competition to split into three, the reformed competition in 2021 only included teams from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands.
David Michael Barclay Sole is a former Scotland international rugby union player.
The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby Pacific. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competition in 2017. Following their axing they played in the National Rugby Championship in 2018 and 2019, replacing the Perth Spirit, and Global Rapid Rugby from 2018 to 2020, an Indo-Pacific competition organised by Andrew Forrest.
Perth Rectangular Stadium is a sports stadium in Perth, the capital of the Australian state of Western Australia. Located close to Perth's central business district, the stadium currently has a maximum capacity of 20,500 people for sporting events and 25,000 people for concerts, with the ground's record attendance of 32,000 people set during an Ed Sheeran concert in 2015. The land on which the stadium was built, known as Loton Park, was made a public reserve in 1904, with the main ground developed several years later.
Scott Nicholas Gelling Staniforth is an Australian rugby union footballer.
Robert Kearney is an Irish former rugby union player. He played for 15 years for Leinster followed by a six-month stint in Australia, playing for Perth based side Western Force. He also played over a decade for the Ireland national rugby union team with whom he earned 95 caps, and went on two British & Irish Lions tours in 2009 and 2013. As a youth he also played rugby union for Clongowes Wood College and Gaelic football for Louth in the All-Ireland Minor Football Championship.
Alexander R. Corbisiero is an American-born English retired rugby union loosehead prop who last played for Premiership side Northampton Saints.
James David O'Connor is an Australian professional rugby union footballer who currently plays for Queensland Reds in Super Rugby. He made his international debut for Australia in 2008 at the age of eighteen. He has played for the Western Force and Melbourne Rebels in Super Rugby. In 2013 he played for English Premiership side London Irish, and in the 2014–15 season he moved to France to play in the Top 14 competition for Toulon. His regular playing positions are Fly-half, Centre, Fullback and Wing.
Nicolas William White is an Australian professional rugby union player who plays as a scrum-half for the Super Rugby club Western Force and the Australia national team.
Rugby union in Western Australia describes the sport of rugby union being played and watched in the state of Western Australia. First introduced some time in 1868 it was the most popular football code until it was overtaken by Australian rules there in 1885. After a period of decline and recess between 1905 and 1927 it grew throughout the 20th century. The governing body is the Western Australia Rugby Union (RugbyWA).
Francois Daniel "Slak" van Wyk is a South African rugby union player who currently plays as a loosehead prop for Leicester Tigers in England's Premiership Rugby. He has previously played for Northampton Saints in the Premiership, the Western Force in Super Rugby as well as Western Province in his native South Africa.
Robert Abel is an Australian rugby union coach and former professional rugby union player who as of 2023, coaches forwards for the Utah Warriors in Major League Rugby. He previously played at hooker for NSW, Melbourne Rebels and for the Brumbies in Super Rugby. The Māori All Blacks, and the Canberra Vikings and Perth Spirit, and also played for Northland and Auckland in the ITM Cup.
Ryan Louwrens is a South African Australian professional rugby union player currently playing as a scrum-half for the Melbourne Rebels in the Super Rugby. Formerly with the Western Force, based in the city he migrated to as a teenager, Louwrens has also played with the Perth Spirit, the Kintetsu Liners of the Japanese Top League and the Austin Gilgronis in the Major League Rugby (MLR).
Chance Peni-Ataera is a New Zealand-born rugby union footballer who plays for the Hino Red Dolphins in the Japan Rugby League One competition. He has previously played rugby league for the Cook Islands at international level.
Jermaine Ainsley is a New Zealand professional rugby union footballer who currently plays as a prop for the Otago Highlanders in the Super Rugby competition after previously being with the Rebels.
Jack Clowes, was an American-born British rugby union footballer of the 1880s, who played in Yorkshire for Halifax, and was selected to play at a representative level for the British Isles on the 1888 British Lions tour to New Zealand and Australia, the first tour by a team representing the British Isles. Clowes is notable for having been prohibited from playing on that 1888 tour due to the Rugby Football Union deeming him a professional, and for the subsequent ramifications of his case contributing to the creation of the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895.
Global Rapid Rugby was an international rugby union competition that launched a showcase series for six professional teams in 2019, played in locations across the Asia-Pacific region. Rapid Rugby matches are slightly shorter than the traditional 80 minutes and have other variations from standard rugby laws that are intended to increase the speed of the game.
Nick Haining is a Scottish rugby union player who last played for Edinburgh Rugby in the United Rugby Championship.
Tom Sheminant is an Australian rugby union player who plays for the Force in Global Rapid Rugby and the Super Rugby AU competition. His original playing position is prop. He was named in the Force squad for the Global Rapid Rugby competition in 2020.
Rory O'Sullivan is an Australian rugby union player who plays for the Force in Global Rapid Rugby and the Super Rugby AU competition. His original playing position is scrum-half. He was named in the Force squad for the Global Rapid Rugby competition in 2020.
