To celebrate the five top teams contesting the U-bix Rugby Super 12, this set of ten stamps was issued, featuring two action photos of each team:

Wellington Hurricanes,
Chiefs,
Auckland Blues,
Canterbury Crusaders,
Otago Highlanders.

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Postally-used, and in tidy clean condition. This is the gummed & perforated version (which came from miniature sheets).

CP S650az - S659az . Catalogue value = $30.

Super Rugby (rendered in the current logo as "SupeRugby", also colloquially referred to as "Super 15") is the largest and pre-eminent professional Rugby union competition in the Southern Hemisphere. After starting as the Super 10, then Super 12 and later growing into the Super 14 competition, it then expanded to 15 teams for the 2011 season and has been rebranded as Super Rugby, with no number included. It consists of teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The competition was started in 1996, and from the first season through to 2005, the competition was known as Super 12; the name was changed to Super 14 following the addition of two teams for the 2006 season. Matches are now broadcast in 41 countries.

With significant sponsorship, and rugby turning a professional sport in 1995, the Super 12 competition successfully kicked off in 1996 with five New Zealand franchises, four South African provinces and three domestic Australian teams competing. New Zealand's dominance of the competition began in the first year when the Auckland Blues won the inaugural competition defeating South African side the Natal Sharks 45 – 21 in a home final. The Blues would repeat the success of 1996 beating Australian side the ACT Brumbies 23 – 7 in the 1997 final.

The Blues then reached their third successive final in 1998 but went down to fellow countrymen the Canterbury Crusaders 13 – 20. This would mark the beginning of the Crusaders' three-year dominance as they went on to win the 1999 and 2000 finals over the Otago Highlanders and ACT Brumbies respectively.

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