Any Given Saturday: How competitive is Super Rugby?

Parity is something that every sports league should strive for.

In a perfect world, all participating teams in any given league would have roughly the same amount of talent, leading to more competitive fixtures and unpredictable results.

The NFL has become the poster boy for parity, with just four of the 32 teams yet to make an appearance in the league’s championship game, the Super Bowl. In addition, 13 different teams have appeared in the Super Bowl since 2010.

At first glance, it might be fair to say that Super Rugby is far from achieving the parity pipe dream. All you have to do is look at last season’s points table, where the New Zealand conference bottom-dwellers finished with more competition points than the Australian conference champions.

While Super Rugby is still far from perfect in terms of parity, upon closer inspection it might be a little closer than you think.

After just six weeks of competition, Super Rugby’s “Circle of Parity” is already nearing completion.

The graphic above illustrates the fact that this season anyone can win in Super Rugby on any given day (with the exception of the Sunwolves, for now).

Sports fans crave unpredictability, and so far Super Rugby has delivered.