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Rugby Australia announces Super Rugby AU schedule for 2021 competition
By AAP
The second season of Super Rugby AU will kick off in February, returning top flight rugby union in Australia to its traditional autumn slot in 2021.
The five-team domestic competition filled the breach in Australia from July through September this year after the wider Super Rugby season was shut down in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With COVID-19 virtually eliminated in Australia, Super Rugby AU's second instalment will be a genuine home-and-away season rather than having teams confined to biosecure hubs in eastern states as happened this year.
The season kicks off with a Friday double-header on Feb. 19 with Queensland Reds playing the New South Wales Waratahs at Lang Park in Brisbane, followed by Western Force hosting the defending champions ACT Brumbies in Perth.
All teams play each other twice over 10 rounds before the two-week finals series starts on May 1, as per the schedule released by Rugby Australia (RA) on Wednesday.
RA confirmed the schedule two days after announcing a three-year broadcasting deal worth A$100 million ($73 million) which has shored up the game's financial position after months of uncertainty.
From Super Rugby's second round, the deal includes a free-to-air broadcast of one Saturday game per week on the Nine Network. The other games will be carried on Nine's streaming platform Stan.
Super Rugby was previously available only behind a pay-wall on pay TV provider Foxtel, which ends its two-decade long relationship with Australian rugby union at the end of the year.
New Zealand confirmed the schedule for the second season of their domestic Super Rugby Aotearoa on Tuesday.
Australia and New Zealand are working on organising a cross-over tournament, which could also involve South Africa's Super Rugby teams, at the end of their domestic competitions.
SUPER RUGBY AU 2021 DRAW:
Round 1
Queensland Reds v NSW Waratahs, Friday February 19, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Western Force v Brumbies, Friday February 19, HBF Park, Perth
Round 2
Queensland Reds v Melbourne Rebels, Friday February 26, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Brumbies v NSW Waratahs, Saturday February 27, GIO Stadium, Canberra
Round 3
NSW Waratahs v Western Force, Friday March 5, Venue TBC
Melbourne Rebels v Brumbies, Saturday March 6, AAMI Park, Melbourne
Round 4
Western Force v Melbourne Rebels, Friday March 12, HBF Park, Perth
Brumbies v Queensland Reds, Saturday March 13, GIO Stadium, Canberra
Round 5
Melbourne Rebels v NSW Waratahs, Friday March 19, AAMI Park, Melbourne
Queensland Reds v Western Force, Saturday March 20, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Round 6
Brumbies v Western Force, Friday March 26, GIO Stadium, Canberra
NSW Waratahs v Queensland Reds, Saturday M arch 27, Venue TBC
Round 7
NSW Waratahs v Brumbies, Friday April 2, Venue TBC
Melbourne Rebels v Queensland Reds, Saturday April 3, AAMI Park, Melbourne
Round 8
Melbourne Rebels v Western Force, Friday April 9, AAMI Park, Melbourne
Queensland Reds v Brumbies, Saturday April 10, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Round 9
Brumbies v Melbourne Rebels, Friday April 16, GIO Stadium, Canberra
Western Force v NSW Waratahs, Saturday April 17, HBF Park, Perth
Round 10
Western Force v Queensland Reds, Friday April 23, HBF Park, Perth
NSW Waratahs v Melbourne Rebels, Saturday April 24, Venue TBC
Qualifying Final
Saturday 1 May
Final
Saturday May 8
*All kick off times to be confirmed
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Stephen Larkham, Mick Byrne, Scott Wisental, Ben Mowen, Les Kiss, Jim McKay, Rod Kafer.
There are plenty of great Australian coaches who could do a better job than Schmidt.
Go to commentsThis piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.
I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.
Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.
The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.
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