With just a week to go until professional rugby returns to our screens, here is everything you need to know about the upcoming Super Rugby Aotearoa tournament.

‘Aotearoa’ is the Maori word for New Zealand, meaning the tournament will only involve the five Super Rugby franchises from both the North and South islands of New Zealand – Blues, Chiefs, Crusaders, Highlanders and Hurricanes.

Each team will play each other twice in a home and away match over the course of 10 weeks, with one team sitting out each round.

Like all other sports that are slowly starting to come back, the games will be played behind closed doors until it is safe for fans to return to the stadiums in large numbers.

Super Rugby Aotearoa has also recently announced various changes to the rules of play for a faster and safer game. These rules include:

1) Any matches that end in a draw are to be decided with an extra-time golden point scenario, meaning the first team to score any type of points in a 10 minute extra time period will be awarded the win. If after 10 minutes neither team have scored, each side will be awarded two points for a draw.

2) Players that are red-carded during a game are now allowed to be replaced by a teammate after 20 minutes.

3) Ball carriers are only allowed one dynamic movement after being tackled – any secondary movement such as crawling or rolling will result in a penalty to the opposition.

The first game of the revised Super Rugby series sees the Chiefs travel to Dunedin to face the Highlanders at the Forsyth Barr Stadium on Saturday, June 13th.

On June 14th, the Blues come up against the Hurricanes at Eden Park in Auckland, with rugby fans all around the world eager to see if All Black legend Dan Carter will make his first appearance back in Super rugby after signing for the blues last week.

Carter, who currently holds the title as the highest points scorer in test match rugby history, previously spent 12 years at the Crusaders, playing 141 times before moving to France after winning the 2015 World Cup.

The Crusaders will be the first team to have a bye week in the first round of fixtures.

All teams will start on zero and the points system will remain the same as it normally is for the Super Rugby competitions – four points for a win, two for a draw, a bonus point for losing by seven or less and a bonus point by winning by three tries or more.

Super Rugby Aotearoa promises to give us the very best rugby that the Southern Hemisphere has to offer and you can watch every game live on Sky Sports.

Super Rugby Aotearoa 2020 Schedule:

(All times are in British Summer Time (BST)

Round 1:

June 13th – Highlanders vs Chiefs – 6am

June 14 – Blue vs Hurricanes – 4am

Bye – Crusaders

Round 2:

June 20th – Chiefs vs Blues – 6am

June 21st – Hurricanes vs Crusaders – 4am

Bye – Highlanders

Round 3:

June 27th – Blues vs Highlanders – 6am

June 28th – Crusaders vs Chiefs – 4am

Bye – Hurricanes

Round 4:

July 4th – Highlanders vs Crusaders – 6am

July 5th – Chiefs vs Hurricanes – 4am

Bye – Blues

Round 5:

July 11th – Crusaders vs Blues – 6am

July 12th – Hurricanes vs Highlanders – 4am

Bye – Chiefs

Round 6:

July 18th – Hurricanes vs Blues – 6am

July 19th – Chiefs vs Highlanders – 4am

Bye – Crusaders

Round 7:

July 25th – Crusaders vs Hurricanes – 6am

July 26th – Blues vs Chiefs – 4am

Bye – Highlanders

Round 8:

August 1st – Chiefs vs Crusaders – 6am

August 2nd – Highlanders vs Blues – 4am

Bye – Hurricanes

Round 9:

August 8th – Hurricanes vs Chiefs – 6am

August 9th – Crusaders vs Highlanders – 4am

Bye – Blues

Round 10:

August 15th – Highlanders vs Hurricanes – 6am

August 16th – Blues vs Crusaders – 4am

Bye – Chiefs

(all matches are to be repeated on Sky Sports each game day at 10am BST).

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