The Lions, Bulls, Stormers and Sharks will all take part in a sixteen team ‘Rainbow Cup’ in April following the completion of the current PRO14 season in March.
The new competition will see even more South African sides face off against their Northern Hemisphere counterparts, with the Cheetahs and Kings being the first teams to play in the league in 2017.
The introduction of Super Rugby sides was a contentious issue at the time of its introduction but has been warmly accepted by the majority of teams and supporters in the league. it has been successful in broadening the scope and interest in the competition in recent years.
The Rainbow Cup will be made up of two pools of eight teams, with the winner of each group meeting in the final of the new competition in June. Reports suggest that each pool will have two South African sides with the other twelve sides consisting of the European teams involved in the PRO14.
Each team will face their pool opponents once and the tournament will officially be called ‘The Guinness PRO14 Rainbow Cup’.
The PRO14 season will finish on March 27 when the winners of Conference A and Conference B will face off in the final. The team with the most points will host the winner of the other conference in the showpiece event.