What Is The SARU Community Cup?

If you are left confused about the various rugby unions, clubs and cups, don't feel alone.

The whole ball game changed when the SA Rugby Union blew the end whistle on the old format National Club Championships, a contest that ran each year from 1975 up to 2012. The new format is called the Community Cup, or as it is now known - the Cell-C Community Cup, and kicked-off in 2013.

This competition is designed for maximum involvement of local talent in the farthest reaches of our country. There are 684 clubs participating from 15 Unions. That is - between 10,000 and 20,000 rugby players!

The following diagram explains the three major rugby cups in our country:

A list of all community rugby clubs can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_South_African_rugby_union_teams

Each of the Community Rugby Clubs has a premier league to which all teams aspire. If your team is in the premiere leage of the club, they can compete for the Club championships.

Each winner of the club championships plus 5 (20 teams in total) then compete for the sought after Golden Cup. This cup then determines the all-out national winner of all community teams.

The following table shows the standing of the top 20 community teams since the start of the competition in 2013: