Ata glance
‘‘We all come from very, very small places and being able to take it back to the grassroots is everything we’ve dreamed of.’’
The squads for the second season of Super Rugby Aupiki are set to be confirmed later this month, but the Black Ferns’ World Cup squad featured three foundation Poua players – Hirini; lock Joanah Ngan-Woo, who pulled off the lineout steal that sealed New Zealand’s win over England; and winger Ayesha LetiI’iga, who scored two tries in the decider.
There were a dozen Chiefs Manawa players; 10 from Matatū , who represent the South Island; and six from the Blues, as well as centre Sylvia Brunt, who would have played for them had she not been injured at the time.
Chiefs Manawa won the initial season of Super Rugby Aupiki, which was crippled by New Zealand’s largest Covid-19 outbreak and played in front of largely empty stands in Hamilton and Taupo.
While the first match of the second season will take place at Levin Domain, the nine to follow will take place in venues that have regularly hosted men’s Super Rugby matches, with two of them curtain-raisers for Super Rugby Pacific clashes.
The semifinals will take place as a double-header at North Harbour Stadium in Auckland on Sunday, March 19, with the final and playoff for third to follow at FMG Stadium Waikato in Hamilton on Saturday, March 25.
Three standalone matches in stadiums are on the cards during the round-robin – two on March 4, when the Blues and Chiefs Manawa meet at North Harbour Stadium and Matatū and Hurricanes Poua meet in Christchurch and one on March 11, when the Chiefs host Matatū in Hamilton.
The turnouts for those matches will be the first real indication of whether the momentum built by the Black Ferns over the course of the World Cup, where they drew the five largest crowds in New Zealand history for women’s sports events, can be sustained.
Super Rugby Aupiki 2023: Round 1, Saturday, February 25, 2.05pm: Hurricanes Poua v Chiefs Manawa; Levin Domain, Levin; Matatū v Blues; Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin.