Super Rugby Aupiki is a professional women's

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

club competition in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

. Its inaugural season was held in March 2022. It is a steppingstone between the

Farah Palmer Cup The Farah Palmer Cup (formerly known as Women's Provincial Championship until 2016), is the highest level domestic women's rugby union competition in New Zealand and is named after the former Black Ferns captain, Farah Palmer. This contest is ...

and the Black Ferns. Aupiki translates as ‘''the ascent to the upper most realm''’.

Format

Initially the four teams were supposed to have three regular season matches with one home and away game, and one Super Round fixture. The top two teams at the end of the three rounds would contest the final. However, the competition was reformatted as a round robin fixture because of the impact of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

. All the squads were strongly affected with player isolations and COVID-19 cases. The inaugural champion would be crowned based on their competition points after the final round.

History

The Chiefs Manawa won the inaugural title of the

2022 Super Rugby Aupiki season The 2022 Super Rugby Aupiki season is the inaugural season of Super Rugby Aupiki. The competition commenced on 10 March between Chiefs Manawa and Matatū. On 20 March, Chiefs Manawa were crowned as the inaugural champions of Super Rugby Aupiki ...

. They defeated the

Blues Women The Blues Women's team (known as the nib Blues Women for sponsorship reasons) is a New Zealand professional women's rugby union team based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the Super Rugby Aupiki competition. History Historic clas ...

35–0 in the final round of the competition.

Teams

There are four teams that will be competing over a four-week period in March. The three teams based in the north will be aligned with their Super Rugby franchises, namely the Blues, Chiefs and

Hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm, storm system characterized by a Low-pressure area, low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, Beaufort scale, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms tha ...

. The South Island team although governed by the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...

, will encompass both the Crusaders and the Highlanders regions. On 12 October, the combined Crusaders and Highlanders rugby side was named as

Matatū Matatū is a New Zealand women's professional rugby union team that competes in the Super Rugby Aupiki competition. Matatū represents the South Island, specifically the regions covered by the Crusaders and the Highlanders. They are governed ...

Players

All four sides will contract 28-players for the inaugural Super Rugby Aupiki season. All players will be paid for participating within the tournament, with all players being on professional or semi-professional contracts.

Television

Matches in the Super Rugby Aupiki competition will be shown by Sky Sport in New Zealand.

References

{{Women's rugby union Rugby union leagues in New Zealand Professional sports leagues in New Zealand 2021 establishments in New Zealand Sports leagues established in 2021 Women's rugby union competitions in New Zealand

Rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...