{"id":503928,"date":"2026-07-01T04:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T04:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/503928\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T04:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T04:50:09","slug":"teams-will-play-more-games-in-10-team-super-rugby-pacific-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/503928\/","title":{"rendered":"Teams will play more games in 10-team Super Rugby Pacific competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Super Rugby Pacific has confirmed a revamped competition structure for the 2027 season featuring an expanded regular season and a new high-stakes finals series, following the demise of Moana Pasifika.<\/p>\n

The season will begin on Friday 12 February, with the competition’s 10 teams going head-to-head across an extended 17-week regular season.<\/p>\n

The extra week combined with a reduction in byes from two to one means each team will play 16 regular season matches – two more than 2026.<\/p>\n

Just last week New Zealand Rugby confirmed that Moana Pasifika would not be involved in next year’s competition<\/a>, after several bids to rescue the team were rejected.<\/p>\n

New Zealand Rugby said none were able to demonstrate the level of committed funding required to meet NZR’s financial and operational requirements.<\/p>\n

The squads for the first Anzac Day Bledisloe Cup Test will be named following round nine, effectively transforming the opening two months of the season into a shoot-out for national selection<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A rejig of the finals series for 2027 means the top six teams on the ladder will still qualify; however, the teams that finish first and second will get a week off and advance directly to the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

Teams ranked third and fourth will host sudden-death elimination finals against the teams finishing fifth and sixth respectively, with the winners progressing as away teams for the semi-final fixtures.<\/p>\n

Super Rugby Pacific chief executive Jack Mesley said the refreshed format had been designed to make the most of the 20-week competition window while delivering a more compelling finals series.<\/p>\n

“We’re delighted to have developed a structure that pushes the limits of our competition window to deliver more games and give every fan more opportunities to see their favourite teams in action,” Mesley said.<\/p>\n

“At the same time, our new-look finals series ensures teams will be more desperate than ever to finish in the top two to secure a week off, and the top four to host a home final, while every finals game will be a genuine do-or-die contest on the road to the championship.<\/p>\n

“The introduction of the Anzac Bledisloe to our calendar will help ensure every match means more, with Test jerseys up for grabs from the moment we kick off in February.<\/p>\n

“Off the back of the success of Super Round in 2026, we are working diligently to confirm it remains an integral part of our calendar next year.<\/p>\n

“We’re already looking forward to the storylines, drama and excitement that this new structure will help deliver for Super Rugby Pacific in 2027.”<\/p>\n

The 2027 Super Rugby Pacific grand final will be played on Saturday 26 June.<\/p>\n

Further details regarding the 2027 Super Rugby Pacific draw will be announced in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

2027 Super Rugby Pacific finals series<\/p>\n

Week one – elimination finals<\/p>\n

1 vs. lowest-seeded EF winner<\/p>\n

2 vs. highest-seeded EF winner<\/p>\n

Highest-seeded SF winner vs. lowest-seeded SF winner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Super Rugby Pacific has confirmed a revamped competition structure for the 2027 season featuring an expanded regular season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-503928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}