Revealed: Who will lift the unique Super Rugby Unlocked trophy?

How do we say goodbye to 25 years of Super Rugby? Of Fridays and Saturdays that were our world? Of moments that are our memories? Of scores that are etched into our hearts?

This is how.

In celebration of 25 years of Super Rugby comes a new trophy that will stand like a monument to the past and a sentinel to the future. A trophy forged from the toughest materials pulled from the very earth upon which the rugby fields of the southern hemisphere have thundered with the sound of 25 years of Super Rugby glory.

It has taken 25 years to reach this moment. A moment when the whistle will blow for the final time in the history of Super Rugby – 25 years after it blew to signal the start of the most gut-wrenching, heart-stopping, fist-pumping rugby competition the world of sport has ever seen.

A moment when we will all say goodbye to something that has been a part of us – as players and as fans.

The 2020 Super Rugby Unlocked trophy will represent the ultimate tribute to the pure resilience, longevity and passion of one of the toughest competitions in the history of rugby.

“For the last Super Rugby tournament, we wanted to create something that encapsulated the history of the past 25 years and which had a heritage feel to it, but which also looked to the future and portrayed the possibilities in that,” said Liam Dobell, Head of Rugby for Vodacom.

So from the workshop of Gilles Raffle and the team at MascotOne comes the new Super Rugby Unlocked trophy. A trophy for one season, but also a trophy for 25 years of reasons.

The base contains the name of every single winning team, and from their collective rugby glory seven arms emerge and spiral and twist upwards in flashes of silver, echoing the players and teams that have reached onwards and upwards towards rugby glory over 25 years.

The seven arms are distinctive this year, representing the seven South African teams that will compete for the final trophy in the history of Super Rugby, and in a year of change and challenge.

The front two arms form the unmistakeable “V” of Vodacom, the company that was there in 1996 when it all started, supporting a vision and helping to turn it into a legacy. And at the pinnacle of these seven arms, a golden rugby ball rests at an angle as if placed on a kicking tee, ready for what comes next in the game of rugby.

The newly-made Super Rugby Unlocked trophy. Picture: Gareth Gilmour

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