Rugby Championship 2023 Kick-off

After an engaging domestic season and with Rugby World Cup 2023 on the horizon, The Rugby Championship is the perfect stage for players to adjust to the demands of Test rugby and for fans to gauge how their teams are preparing for France.
 
The annual Rugby Championship (TRC) is the Southern Hemisphere’s flagship event and one of the world’s premier rugby tournaments featuring many of the best players in the world. It is a tournament that now sees the Super Rugby Pacific honed players from Australia and New Zealand battle against Argentineans and South Africans who have largely been in action in the top clubs in Europe and Japan.

As 2023 is a Rugby World Cup year, the usual 12-match tournament is reduced to a three-round, home or away, six-match tournament in July. Two additional matches including a second Bledisloe Cup match and a second Argentina versus South Africa have also been scheduled in early August following The Rugby Championship.
 
TRC will kick-off on Saturday 8 July when South Africa hosts Australia at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria. The same day Argentina will host the All Blacks in their one home TRC match at Estadio Malvinas Argentinas in Mendoza. South Africa will host Argentina at Emirates Airline Park, Johannesburg, in round three on July 29.

New Zealand’s one home match is against South Africa on Saturday 15 July and will be played at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland.

Australia will play its round two match against Argentina at CommBank Stadium in Sydney on July 15 and its round three match against New Zealand on July 29 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

The Rugby Championship will trial a modified Foul Play Review Process for potential incidents of foul play. The process will be the following:

• Clear and obvious foul play involving contact with the head will result in a red card and the player being permanently removed from the game and unable to be replaced
• For any incident where a red card is not obvious a yellow card will be issued and a dedicated foul play review officer [in a bunker] will review the incident using all available technology and footage.
•  Once 10 minutes has elapsed the yellow card is either upheld and the player returns to the action, or it is upgraded to a red card and the player permanently leaves the field and is unable to be replaced.

This process is intended to speed up the game and assist Match Officials in their decision making.

SANZAAR CEO Brendan Morris stated, “The whole rugby community gets excited at this time of year when international rugby makes its return in the South. This year due to Rugby World Cup the usual July inbound tours from the North are not taking place and so The Rugby Championship is the main focus of attention.”
 
“Following the restructure of Super Rugby Pacific, TRC offers a great opportunity to see the best players of the southern hemisphere go head-to-head against each other in front of home and away crowds as well performing for a global broadcast audience.”
 
“We have three enthralling rounds of the Championship, plus an additional round of fixtures, to excite and fire up the fans in Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The truncated version of the competition will see the whips cracking from the get-go as teams look for 2023 bragging rights before heading to the Rugby World Cup,” added Morris.