Super Cup (rugby union)

Toshiba Super Cup
	Logo introduced for the 2005 tournament
Sport	Rugby union
Inaugural season	2003
Ceased	2005

Last updated September 25, 2019

The Super Cup or Super Powers Cup was an international rugby union competition contested from 2003 to 2005. It featured teams representing Canada, Japan, Russia, the United States and Romania.

Rugby union, widely known simply as rugby, is a contact team sport which originated in England in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its most common form, a game is between two teams of 15 players using an oval-shaped ball on a rectangular field with H-shaped goalposts at each end.

The Canada national rugby union team is governed by Rugby Canada, and play in red and white. Canada is classified by World Rugby as a tier two rugby nation. There are ten tier one nations, and thirteen tier two nations. Canada competes in competitions such as the Americas Rugby Championship and the Rugby World Cup.

The Japan national rugby union team, is traditionally the strongest rugby union power in Asia and has enjoyed and endured mixed results against non-Asian teams over the years. Rugby union in Japan is administered by the Japan Rugby Football Union (JRFU), which was founded in 1926. They compete annually in the Pacific Nations Cup and the Asia Rugby Championship. They have also participated in every Rugby World Cup since the tournament began in 1987.

Tournaments

2003

Date	Winner	Score	Loser
May	United States	69–27	Japan
May	Russia	43–34	Japan
July	Russia	30–21	USA Selects

The Super Powers Cup was first launched in 2003. It was planned that China, Japan, Russia and the United States would play each other once. However, because of the SARS outbreak the Chinese team were forced to withdraw.

The China national rugby union team represents the People's Republic of China in international rugby union. China have yet to make their debut at the Rugby World Cup, but attempted to qualify in both 2003 and 2007.

The Russia national rugby union team, nicknamed the Bears, is administered by the Rugby Union of Russia (RUR). The RUR is considered the official successor union of the Soviet Union by World Rugby and the combined CIS team which played in the early 1990s. Since 1992, the team has played as Russia. Its first test match as Russia was against the Barbarians in Moscow in June 1992 and the country's first test against an official Test nation was against Belgium later that same year.

Russia won the inaugural 2003 competition, defeating the United States 30–21 in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.^[1]

Krasnoyarsk is a city and the administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on the Yenisei River. It is the third-largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk and Omsk, with a population of 1,035,528 as of the 2010 Census. Krasnoyarsk is an important junction of the Trans-Siberian Railway and one of Russia's largest producers of aluminium.

2004

Date	Winner	Score	Loser
May 27	Canada	23–20	United States
May 27	Japan	29–12	Russia
May 30	Japan	34–21	Canada
May 30	United States	41–11	Russia

For the 2004 competition Canada joined the competition. In May of that year Japan won the second edition of the Super Powers Cup in Tokyo, where the entire tournament had been staged, beating Russia 29–12 and Canada 34–21 in the process. The United States defeated Russia in the third-place playoff.

2005

Date	Winner	Score	Loser
May 25	Canada	30–26	United States
May 25	Japan	23–16	Romania
May 29	Canada	15–10	Japan
May 29	United States	28–22	Romania

In 2005 the tournament was renamed the Super Cup and the participants were again changed, with Romania taking the place of Russia. Romania had been given 'second tier' status by the International Rugby Board (IRB), meaning greater funding and integration into the international calendar, while Russia were at the time considered a third tier nation.

Canada and Japan met in the final, with the Canadians winning 15–10. The United States beat a Romanian team missing many of their France-based professionals 23–16 in the third place play-off.

Dissolution

The competition was discontinued in 2005 after the IRB undertook a new Strategic Investment programme, with funding instead going to several new tournaments including the Pacific Nations Cup, featuring Japan (since 2006), Canada and United States (since 2013), as well as the IRB Nations Cup and IRB Tbilisi Cup, involving European, African and South American teams.

In February 2009, representatives from the IRB, Rugby Canada, the Japan Rugby Football Union, the Rugby Union of Russia and USA Rugby met to discuss the possibility of reviving the tournament under the Super Powers Cup name, beginning in November 2010, but nothing materialized.^[2]^[3]

Rugby Canada is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in Canada. Rugby Canada was incorporated in 1974, and stems from the Canadian Rugby Football Union, a body established in 1884 that now governs amateur Canadian football as Football Canada; and the now-defunct Rugby Union of Canada, established in 1929. Rugby Canada administers the Canada national rugby union team and sanctions the Rugby Canada National Junior Championship, a national competition for under-20 men's teams. It previously sanctioned the Super League as the premier level of men's competition in the country, but scrapped that league after the Americas Rugby Championship was created in 2009 as a two-stage competition in which the first involved only Canadian teams.

The Japan Rugby Football Union is the governing body for rugby union in Japan. It was formed 30 November 1926, and organises matches for the Japan national team.

Rugby Union of Russia is the governing body for rugby union in Russia. It was founded in 1936 originally as the Rugby Union of the Soviet Union. The Rugby Union of Russia became affiliated to World Rugby in 1990.

Honours

Year	Winner	Tournament location	Refs
2003	Russia	San Francisco, Tokyo, Krasnoyarsk	^[4]^[5]
2004	Japan	Tokyo	^[6]
2005	Canada	Tokyo	^[7]

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References

↑ Scrum.com : Russia take Super Powers Cup ^{[ dead link ]}
↑ Nigel Melville Direct : What a Week!
↑ Nigel Melville Direct : A thrilling rugby weekend - domestic and abroad!
↑ Super Powers Cup 2003. ESPN Scrum. 19 July 2004
↑ "China fixtures postponed". International Rugby Board. 1 May 2003. Archived from the original on 8 March 2004. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
↑ Super Powers Cup 2004. ESPN Scrum. 30 May 2004
↑ Toshiba Super Cup 2005. ESPN Scrum. 29 May 2005

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[1] Scrum.com : Russia take Super Powers Cup ^{[ dead link ]}

[2] Nigel Melville Direct : What a Week!

[3] Nigel Melville Direct : A thrilling rugby weekend - domestic and abroad!

[4] Super Powers Cup 2003. ESPN Scrum. 19 July 2004

[china-sars-2003-5] "China fixtures postponed". International Rugby Board. 1 May 2003. Archived from the original on 8 March 2004. Retrieved 14 May 2015.

[6] Super Powers Cup 2004. ESPN Scrum. 30 May 2004

[7] Toshiba Super Cup 2005. ESPN Scrum. 29 May 2005