Super 6 opening season to start after Rugby World Cup 2019

The first season of Super 6, the new top tier of the Scottish domestic game, will kick off in early November 2019.

The competing Super 6 teams, who secured their places in the new competition through an open application process, have agreed to start the initial season after the conclusion of Rugby World Cup 2019.

The six teams will play 20 competitive matches each season made up of 10 Super 6 fixtures, played home and away, two Super 6 play-off fixtures and eight cross-border matches.

The opening matches of Super 6 will be played on the weekend of 9 November 2019 with games over the course of the tournament being scheduled for either Friday nights or Saturdays, based on the preference of the home team.

With a couple of stand-by weekends built in and no Super 6 matches scheduled over Guinness 6 Nations weekends the tournament will conclude at the end of March with semi-finals over the weekend of 7 March 2020 and the Super 6 Final on the weekend of 28 March 2020.

The Super 6 competition fixture list will be compiled by Scottish Rugby. Other domestic league fixtures, Club XV fixtures and pro- team fixtures will all be considered when compiling the fixture list.

Discussions around the cross-border element of the Super 6 season are on-going, with the competition proposed to follow after the Super 6 Final and played from mid-April onwards.

Scottish Rugby’s Sean Lineen, who is heading up the on-field responsibilities for Super 6 said: “We have worked closely with the respective clubs to ensure the opening edition of Super 6 can be played over a block of time that allows the clubs and players to fully focus on this exciting new competition.

“The Rugby World Cup will generate a huge focus on the sport and following that it will be a great opportunity to launch Super 6 and play the matches over a set period of time which will really create that week on week competition to test the players and coaches and enable fans to easily follow the progress of the tournament.”