The Super Rugby Pacific has spread its wings and broadened its calendar in 2027 with the organizers announcing an unprecedented 10 games will be played on Sundays.
‘nine.com.au’ stated that Super Rugby has traditionally been played on Friday and Saturday while the National Rugby League (NRL) and the Australian Football League (AFL) stay busy on Sundays.
The Grand Final will be played on June 26th.
The Super Rugby Pacific is a professional rugby union competition featuring the elite club teams from New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, and the Pacific Islands.
Sydney (Australia)-based the National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which is currently contested by 16 teams based in Australia (in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory) and one team based in New Zealand. The expansion teams based in Western Australia (Perth Bears) and Papua New Guinea (island country in Oceania) (Papua New Guinea Chiefs) are set to enter the competition in 2027 and 2028, respectively.
Melbourne (Australia)-based the Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional competition of Australian Rules football.
The Australian Rules football or Aussie Rules, and also known simply as Australian football, football or footy in Australia, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. The points are scored by kicking the oval ball between the central goal posts (worth six points), or between a central and outer post (worth one point, otherwise known as a ‘behind’).
Well-received
‘nine.com.au’ further stated that but after the four Sunday games were well-received this year the officials have decided to more than double those fixtures.
The season kicks off on February 12th with the New Zealand professional rugby union team Crusaders hosting the Australian rugby union team Queensland Reds in Christchurch (New Zealand) before the Australian professional rugby union team ACT Brumbies and the Australian rugby union team NSW Waratahs renew their rivalry in Canberra (Australia) later that evening.
Wild Success
The Super Round will return to the 30,000-seat One New Zealand Stadium in Christchurch, New Zealand, from April 2nd-4th after its wild success this year.
The Super Round is an event in the Super Rugby Pacific in which all fixtures for one round of the season are organized to be played at one venue.
Square Off
And the Australian rugby union team Queensland Reds and the New Zealand professional rugby union team Blues will square off in Brisbane (Australia) on August 24th before the Australia national rugby union team Wallabies and the New Zealand national rugby union team All Blacks play the inaugural Anzac Day Bledisloe Cup Test (a biennial one-off rugby union Test match between Australia and New Zealand) at the 52,500-seat Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane (Australia) the next day.
Sudden-death Elimination Final
The top six teams will contest a revamped three-week Finals’ series with the top two progressing directly to the Semifinals and the teams ranked third and fourth hosting sudden-death elimination Finals (a knockout match where the loser is immediately knocked out of the tournament and any tie in the score after regulation or extra time is decided by the first team to score).
2027 Draw
Exulted Jack Mesley, Chief Executive, Super Rugby Pacific, “We’re delighted to deliver a 2027 draw that gives the fans more to look forward to than ever before – Sunday footy, an epic Easter weekend, the Super Round back in Christchurch, and a history-making Anzac weekend (a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand observed every year to honor the military personnel who have served and died in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations) in Brisbane. Every team begins the season with a clear ambition to win the title. But the stakes will be even higher next year with the opening half of the season shaping as a shootout for the Test jerseys ahead of the inaugural Anzac Bledisloe and the Rugby World Cup (a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams the winners of which are recognized as the world champions of the sport) coming sharply into view beyond it. Throw in all the traditional and emerging rivalries and a new Finals series where every game is sudden death and there will be more at stake in every Super Rugby Pacific fixture, from the opening whistle through to the grand Final.”
‘Fan-focused Draw’
Concluded Mesley, “Over the last three seasons our competition has experienced growth across all key metrics and we’re confident that we’ve delivered a fan-focused draw for 2027 that will continue to build on that positive momentum.”
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