Rugby
Rugby Championship draw
2013-03-19 09:33
Rugby Championship (File)
|
Cape Town - SANZAR has announced the full draw for the Rugby Championship which kicks off on Saturday, August 17 with back-to-back matches in Sydney and Bloemfontein.
Rugby Championship draw Defending champions New Zealand will clash with Australia at ANZ Stadium from 20:05 local time before South Africa welcomes Argentina to the Free State Stadium just hours later for the tail end of a spectacular tournament-opening double header.
The Rugby Championship will be played at 12 different venues across the four competing nations, providing rugby fans throughout the southern hemisphere with every opportunity to see the world’s leading teams in action.
SANZAR CEO Greg Peters said, “The schedule has remained consistent with recent seasons to provide familiarity for Unions and fans while maximising our television audience, which is always a challenge when working across four distinctly different time zones.
“The inaugural staging of The Rugby Championship showcased a very high standard of rugby to more than 16 million viewers and over half a million passionate supporters that filled stadiums to 91% capacity.
“With New Zealand, South Africa and Australia ranked one to three in the world, Argentina rapidly acclimatising to this high calibre of rugby and 10 combined end-of-year Test match triumphs for our four competing nations, SANZAR is confident of raising the bar even higher in 2013.”
Ticketing information will be released by the Unions in the coming months.