Games are confirmed at McDonald Jones Stadium, WIN Stadium and Bankwest Stadium – with further fixtures around Sydney to be confirmed, along with a soon-to-be-announced match in Country New South Wales.
Michael Hooper and his squad will be on the road to Christchurch to face the Crusaders to open the 25th season of the continental competition, before returning to the Hunter for their first clash on home soil against the Auckland Blues.
Two fixtures are already confirmed for Sydney’s west, with the NSW Waratahs to face the Lions from South Africa (Round 5) and the Brumbies (Round 16) at Bankwest Stadium.
The Illawarra region will have the professional game on their doorstep for the first time, with WIN Stadium to host the Waratahs and Chiefs (Round 6) on Friday 6 March.
Trips to Newcastle and Wollongong have been made possible thanks to the support of Venues New South Wales, Newcastle City Council and Destination Wollongong.
NSW Rugby CEO, Andrew Hore said the various home venues for the NSW 2020 Super Rugby season were about spreading the reach of the game and connecting with people right around the state.
“We’re a bush to beach organisation and as much as we value and appreciate the work of the NSW Government and the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust in building a new stadium for the [NSW] Waratahs, it gives us a great opportunity,” Hore said.
“Last year [2019 season] timeframes were against us in terms of spreading our wings as far as we’d like, we’re really excited about the opportunity to further that in 2020.”
Hore said that the fixtures currently listed as ‘Sydney’ will be finalised in the coming weeks.
“With the Sydney Football Stadium and ANZ Stadium unavailable the options are limited in a busy sporting landscape in Sydney, particularly when we want to ensure certain standards for our Members and fans, as well as meet SANZAAR requirements,” Hore added.
“The fan experience and playing facilities at McDonald Jones Stadium, WIN Stadium and Bankwest are fantastic and we’re happy with the mix of venues we’ve been able to secure so far.
“We’re working closely with the [SCG] Trust to finalise the last of our Sydney fixtures, as they balance their obligations to range of other sports – we’d expect to finalise those locations shortly.”
The 2020 season will also see earlier starts for Friday and Saturday night fixtures, with a new kick-off time of 7.15pm.
Tournament details:
The tournament’s 15-team, three-Conference format remains the same for the 2020 season.
Each team plays 16 regular season conference matches that include eight matches within their own Conference (home and away) and four matches against teams from each of the other Conferences (home or away) with each team having two byes.
The 120 matches within the regular season will be followed by the seven-match, eight-team finals series which remains unchanged from 2019.
Australian Conference: Brumbies, Rebels, Reds, Waratahs, Sunwolves [Japan]
New Zealand Conference: Blues, Chiefs, Crusaders, Highlanders, Hurricanes
South African Conference: Bulls, Lions, Sharks, Stormers, Jaguares [Argentina]
