Wikipedia - Super Series (Scottish rugby union competition)
The SRU Super Series, known as the FOSROC Super Series for sponsorship reasons, and prior to 2023 known as Super 6, was a semi-professional league for Scottish rugby union clubs, which ran between 2019 and 2024.
History
Six clubs were awarded licences to play in the new Super 6 league by the Scottish Rugby Union. The intention was to bridge the gap between the amateur Scottish Premiership and the professional Pro14 (now the United Rugby Championship) to aid player progression. The six clubs were turned into semi-professional clubs, with part-time players and full-time coaches, and a squad budget of £125,000 each. Every team had a 35-man squad. The six core clubs signed a contract for five years, during which there would be no relegation or replacement. Scotland's two professional clubs, Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors, could assign their players to the clubs below in a Pro-Draft; so that they could still play when not used by the professional sides.
The inaugural Super 6 tournament began in November 2019 after the rugby world cup of that year. The clubs would play 20 fixtures in total: 10 fixtures against one another home and away and then 2 play-off matches - which would conclude the Super 6 fixtures. A further 8 matches scheduled against non-Scottish clubs would then be played by the Super 6 clubs but this was to be outside the Super 6 competition. The first season was curtailed after the league finished, and there were no play-off matches due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The tournament did not run at all in season 2020-21 due to the pandemic. The second Super 6 season was launched in July 2021, and the Ayrshire Bulls became the inaugural Super 6 champions after defeating The Southern Knights at Dam Park in the playoff final on 17 October 2021. In November 2021, plans were announced that the tournament would be expanded in 2022 to include two new teams, including one from Glasgow and English based RFU Championship London Scottish.However, plans for this did not come to fruition in time for the 2023 Season
The third Super 6 season was played between 5 August and 30 October 2022, with Watsonians defeating Ayrshire Bulls in the final. The fourth season, renamed the Super Series, ran between 28 July and 18 November 2023, and ended with Stirling Wolves defeating Ayrshire Bulls in the final. The competition was disbanded after the 2023-24 season, when the six core teams' contracts expired, to be replaced by a new male player pathway involving professional 'A' games, Scotland 'A' games, and expanded academies.