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Super Rugby Aupiki draw released for inaugural 2022 season
By Alex McLeod
Women's rugby in New Zealand will open a new chapter on March 5 when the first-ever Super Rugby Aupiki match takes place at Eden Park.
New Zealand Rugby [NZR] announced the draw for the inaugural Super Rugby Aupiki season on Friday, with the Blues to stage the competition's maiden fixture against Chiefs Manawa in Auckland on the first Saturday of March.
The match will act as a curtain-raiser to the Super Rugby Pacific clash between the men's teams of each franchise, which is scheduled to kick-off at Eden Park later that afternoon.
The following day, the Hurricanes will open their Super Rugby Aupiki account against Matat?, a composite South Island side made up of players from the Crusaders and Highlanders regions, at Orangetheory Stadium in Christchurch.
Super Rugby Aupiki's debut season will comprise of three rounds in which all four teams play each other once, with the top two teams to play each other in a one-off final on either March 26 or March 27.
Round three of the competition will be a Super Round, whereby all fixtures - Blues vs Matat? and Chiefs Manawa vs Hurricanes - will be staged at FMG Stadium Waikato in Hamilton.
“This year is going to be like nothing we’ve seen before when it comes to the women’s game and Super Rugby Aupiki is a great way to get things underway," NZR general manager of professional rugby and performance Chris Lendrum said.
“We’ve seen the four clubs assemble strong, exciting squads and this draw was the last piece of the puzzle before launching the competition in March.
"We’re looking forward to seeing New Zealand get in behind the players and teams and make this first season really set a benchmark for years to come."
Confirmation of the Super Rugby Aupiki draw comes in the same year that New Zealand will host the women's edition of the Rugby World Cup between October and November.
All Super Rugby Aupiki matches will be broadcast live in New Zealand on Sky Sport, as well as free-to-air channel Prime.
2022 Super Rugby Aupiki draw
Round One
Saturday 5 March
Blues v Chiefs Manawa, Eden Park, kick off 1:45pm
Sunday 6 March
Matat? v Hurricanes, Orangetheory Stadium, kick off 3:45pm
Round Two
Saturday, 12 March
Hurricanes v Blues, Sky Stadium, kick off 1:45pm
Sunday, 13 March
Chiefs Manawa v Matat?, FMG Stadium, kick off 3:45pm
Round Three - Super Round - FMG Stadium
Saturday, 19 March
Blues v Matat?, kick off 1:45pm
Chiefs Manawa v Hurricanes, kick off 4:35pm
FINAL
Saturday, 26 or Sunday, 27 March
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Great point. It would be terrible to have a card for poor tackling cost the all blacks a world cup. Oh hi all blacks captain Sam Cane, how you going?
Go to commentsI like Andy’s critical approach to all hot issues especially when it comes to the rugby big “bosses”. However, sorry Andy, I don’t support your “we shouldn’t be questioning the integrity of Karl Dickson or any other official”. May I ask why? They do have a lot of responsibility, but they are people like us with all their sins and weaknesses. We have to respect their decision during the games, but why they became untouchable afterwards and people cannot even criticize them and the ones, who does express their concerns, got punished for publicly analyzing their mistakes and asking questions. If they believe they did right, there shouldn’t be a problem for any of the refs to answer these “questions” publicly. I don’t really remember such cases. However, I do remember how Craig Joubert shown his running skills in 2015 or Pascal Gauzere shined in Cardiff in 2021. I do believe that Rassie, as anybody else, had a full right to share his vision of Nic Berry’s performance the same year. I do not support the hate in any form especially in public one, but creating the cast of untouchable refs and rugby bosses is not for me. As for Karl, he had all means to question his appointment for the game and since I don’t now whether he did it, blaming just RFU wouldn’t be quite correct at this moment. I love the game of rugby and almost every time I watch it I don’t support any team, I just wanna see the good game and fair referring. Sorry, Karl. last Saturday you got my Craig Joubert”s award of the round. It is up to Karl to prove that I am wrong, not to Andy or RFU’s corporate bla-bla-bla. Something like that…
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