Dunedin has suffered another blow with the announcement it will play no part in a groundbreaking women\u2019s rugby tour next year.<\/p>\n
The British and Irish Lions women are touring New Zealand for the first time in 2027.<\/p>\n
A tour containing three tests and two non-internationals will bypass Dunedin, the BBC is\u00a0reporting.<\/p>\n
It follows confirmation the city will not be allocated an All Blacks test this year for the first\u00a0time in five years.<\/p>\n
There may, however, be a fairly straightforward explanation \u2014 and a significant sweetener\u00a0\u2014 for Dunedin missing the Lions cut.<\/p>\n
It seems highly possible Dunedin will be allocated a World Cup warm-up test between the All\u00a0Blacks and Scotland in that September window next year.<\/p>\n
Still, there is no reason the city could not host both, and missing out on being part of a history-making Lions tour is a negative, no matter how it is spun.<\/p>\n
The three tests between the Lions and the Black Ferns will be played in Auckland, Wellington\u00a0and Christchurch.<\/p>\n
The tour opener will be against the New Zealand second-string team in Whang\u0101rei on\u00a0September 4, and a game against an invitational team will split the first and second tests.<\/p>\n
New Zealand Rugby acting chief executive Steve Lancaster said the visit of the Lions\u00a0promised to be \u2018\u2018something truly special\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018Starting in the north and finishing in the south was a deliberate decision to make sure as\u00a0many parts of the country can get involved in this incredible event as possible,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018Being in iconic New Zealand venues and seeing international rugby of this calibre is going\u00a0to make this an unmissable experience, and I’d encourage fans to start making plans to be part\u00a0of this inaugural tour.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
The Christchurch test will be played at One New Zealand Stadium, which will have been\u00a0operating for over a year by that time, and the Wellington clash will be at Sky Stadium.<\/p>\n
The first test in Auckland, however, will not be at Eden Park but at the smaller stadium at\u00a0Mt Smart.<\/p>\n
British and Irish Lions chief executive Ben Calveley said the tour would be a \u2018\u2018hugely\u00a0significant milestone\u2019\u2019 that would \u2018\u2018create something truly special for the women’s game\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n
It is likely the Lions will be dominated by players from England, the World Cup champions\u00a0and winners of the past seven Six Nations titles.<\/p>\n
The Lions men last toured New Zealand in 2017 and are due back in 2029.<\/p>\n
Lions women\u00a02027 schedule<\/p>\n
September 4: v Black Ferns XV, Whang\u0101rei<\/p>\n
September 11: v Black Ferns, Auckland<\/p>\n
September 14: v Invitational XV, Hamilton<\/p>\n
September 18: v Black Ferns, Wellington<\/p>\n
September 25: v Black Ferns, Christchurch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dunedin has suffered another blow with the announcement it will play no part in a groundbreaking women\u2019s rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-426869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}