2025: A New Era for Super Rugby

Highlanders fans will be marking the ANZAC weekend clash between the Highlanders and Crusaders on their calendars for 2025 – it will be a day to remember. In recent years Highlanders v Crusaders matches have been intense and exciting affairs and the upcoming match on Saturday 26^th April will be no exception for the Highlanders faithful.

The 2025 competition draw features all the NZ Super Clubs playing in Dunedin for the first time since Super Rugby Aotearoa in 2021. The Highlanders will host seven home games at Forsyth Barr Stadium in the new 11-team structure (Find out more about the new structure here).

The new competition format will see all teams playing 14 games, facing each team once, plus seven teams twice, over a 16-week competition period that includes two byes per team. The competition kicks off early on Friday 14th of February with the Waratahs taking on the Highlanders in Sydney.

A key change for the 2025 season is in the finals structure, with the finals series teams reducing from eight to six. The finals will now consist of three quarterfinals, two semifinals, and a grand final on Saturday 21^st June.

The Highlanders will host the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific Champions, the Blues, in their first home game. The round 2 game will take place on Saturday 22^nd February, coinciding with the University of Otago’s O’Week celebrations, ensuring a noisy crowd to welcome rugby back for 2025. The Highlanders will also play host to the Hurricanes, Reds, Fijian Drua, Crusaders, Moana Pasifika, and the Chiefs.

The 2024 semi-finalists the Hurricanes and Chiefs will make appearances in Dunedin at either end of the season, with the Hurricanes being welcomed by a refreshed Highlanders team in round 5 after their first bye week. The Chiefs will close out the scheduled home season with a game in the final round on Friday 30^th May.

Fan favourites, the Fijian Drua, will make the trip south in round 9 on Saturday, 12^th April, following the team’s return from a two-week tour of Australia over rounds 7 and 8, where they will play the Brumbies in Canberra and the Force in Perth. Alongside the Waratahs, Brumbies, and Force, the Highlanders will also play away against Moana Pasifika, Chiefs, Hurricanes, and the Crusaders.

Highlanders’ new Head Coach, Jamie Joseph, is looking forward to the new competition structure in 2025:

“We are happy with the structure of the competition, it looks exciting and the extra bye will be good for the players recovery. It’s good to go up against last year’s champions in our opening home game as they’ll be a good test for us early on and I’m sure the ANZAC weekend game against our old foe the Crusaders will be circled on the players’ calendars too.”

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