SANZAAR · History

SANZAAR is the body that brings together the rugby unions of South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Argentina. It was founded in 1995 as SANZAR by the first three, in the year rugby union turned professional. Since 1996 it has run the southern hemisphere competitions created by that agreement: the international tournament that began as the Tri Nations and has been called the Rugby Championship since 2012, and the Super Rugby franchise competition. It became SANZAAR in 2016, when the Argentine Rugby Union joined as a full member.

The 1995 deal

The alliance was formed in 1995 as the unions' response to plans for rival professional leagues that threatened to take their players. The South African, New Zealand and Australian unions negotiated their television rights together and signed a ten-year contract with Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. The figure usually quoted is US$555 million, although some sources give slightly different amounts. That money paid the first professional salaries and launched two new competitions, which both started in 1996.

From the Tri Nations to the Rugby Championship

The Tri Nations pitted the All Blacks, the Springboks and the Wallabies against each other every year from 1996 to 2011, home and away for much of that period. New Zealand won ten of the sixteen editions; South Africa won in 1998, 2004 and 2009, and Australia in 2000, 2001 and 2011. Los Pumas joined in 2012 and the tournament was renamed the Rugby Championship. New Zealand won the first three editions of the new format, Australia took the title in 2015 and South Africa in 2019. Argentina has never won it.

Super 12, Super 14 and Super Rugby

The club tournament began in 1996 as the Super 12, with twelve teams from the three countries. The Auckland Blues won the first edition. In 2006 it grew to fourteen teams with the arrival of the Western Force and the Cheetahs, and was renamed the Super 14. The Melbourne Rebels joined in 2011, when the competition took the name Super Rugby and was split into national conferences. The 2016 expansion took it to eighteen teams, adding South Africa's Southern Kings, Japan's Sunwolves and Argentina's Jaguares.

Argentina comes in

Argentina's place was built in two steps. First came the national team, which played its first Rugby Championship in 2012. Then came the franchise: the Jaguares made their Super Rugby debut in 2016, with a tour of South Africa before their first home game, and in 2019 they reached the final, losing to the Crusaders. In that same year of 2016 the Argentine Rugby Union became a full partner and the alliance added a second «A» to its name.

Contraction and restructuring

The eighteen-team format lasted two seasons. In 2018 Super Rugby went back to fifteen sides after the Cheetahs, the Southern Kings and the Western Force were cut. The pandemic halted the 2020 season, after which the Jaguares and the Sunwolves left the competition. The South African franchises moved to the European tournament that became the United Rugby Championship. Since 2022 the competition has been played as Super Rugby Pacific, with twelve teams from New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific after Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika joined.

The Springboks in the Rugby Championship

The international tournament kept all four countries. South Africa won the Rugby Championship in 2024 and again in 2025, the first time they had taken it in consecutive editions. The 2025 title was settled on points difference, as the Springboks and the All Blacks both finished on 19 points. It was South Africa's sixth title across the Tri Nations and the Rugby Championship, sealed on 4 October 2025 at Twickenham with a 29-27 win over Argentina.