The Bledisloe Cup is about to mean more than it ever has. New Zealand Rugby and Rugby Australia have confirmed that the All Blacks and Wallabies will contest Anzac Day test matches in 2027, 2029 and 2031, creating a new trans-Tasman sporting tradition on one of the most sacred dates in both nations’ calendars.

All three fixtures will be played at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane with the backing of the Queensland Government, marking the first time in the 123-year history of the Bledisloe Cup that the two sides have met on 25 April. The move also restores the Bledisloe to a three-test series for the first time since 2021, adding an early-season fixture to the two matches already played as part of the Rugby Championship later in the year.

A fixture years in the making

The announcement represents the culmination of a campaign first driven by Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh, who has been pushing for an Anzac Day test since 2024. New Zealand Rugby initially resisted the concept, but a change of management at NZR and the appointment of Dave Rennie as All Blacks head coach — a man known to be in favour of the fixture — helped shift the dial.

NZR had sought reciprocity in the arrangement, wary of committing to a deal that would see the Wallabies host two of three Bledisloe fixtures to the All Blacks’ one. However, the organisation ultimately could not mount a viable commercial case for alternating the Anzac Day venue, and Brisbane’s enormous New Zealand expatriate population made Suncorp the natural and only realistic home.

NZR chief executive Steve Lancaster acknowledged the strategic value of the partnership.

“New Zealand and Australia share a special and unique bond built on sporting rivalries, friendship and those men and women who have served our countries in global conflicts, some making the ultimate sacrifice in doing so,” Lancaster said.

“Playing the Bledisloe Cup on Anzac Day creates a unique trans-Tasman sporting occasion that honours our countries’ shared history and cultures, while bringing people together through rugby.

“Rugby Australia is an important partner for us, and a strong game in Australia is good for rugby in New Zealand. Brisbane has long been seen as a home away from home with a large New Zealand population living there and we see this as a huge opportunity to work in partnership with Rugby Australia to grow the game in a key market.”

Honouring shared sacrifice

The significance of the date extends well beyond commercial opportunity. Rugby’s connection to the Anzac story runs deep — ten Wallabies and 13 All Blacks made the ultimate sacrifice during the First World War, according to the Australian War Memorial. Of those, at least five Wallabies and two All Blacks were killed at Gallipoli, where the spirit of Anzac was born.

Waugh invoked the memory of Tom Richards, the Wallabies legend and Gallipoli veteran, in framing the announcement.

“The eternal bond shared between Australia and New Zealand was forged on the first Anzac Day and, 112 years later, our nations will again unite around a sport that, in the immortal words of Tom Richards, provided hope and respite for troops through the ‘dark passages’ of war,” Waugh said.

“The 123-year history of Australia and New Zealand rugby is renowned and revered across the globe and the first ever staging of an Anzac Day Bledisloe Cup Test will, we believe, create a new trans-Tasman sporting tradition that will bring our nations together and reinforce our shared values.”

The men’s fixture follows in the footsteps of the Black Ferns and Wallaroos, who contested an Anzac Day test at Sunshine Coast Stadium earlier this year, offering a proof of concept for the broader initiative.

The fixtures

The three confirmed Anzac Day Bledisloe Cup tests are:

• Sunday 25 April 2027 – Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane (early afternoon kick-off)
• Wednesday 25 April 2029 – Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
• Friday 25 April 2031 – Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane

Each Anzac Day fixture will form the opening test of a three-match Bledisloe series, with the remaining two tests played during the Rugby Championship — one in New Zealand and one in Australia. In 2028 and 2030, the Bledisloe Cup will remain a two-match series due to Nations Championship commitments.

The inaugural fixture in 2027 will kick off at what organisers describe as a “family-friendly early afternoon time slot,” placing it alongside the AFL and NRL’s Anzac Day blockbusters as a cornerstone of the national sporting calendar.

Queensland’s gain, Super Rugby’s question mark

Queensland has positioned itself as the permanent home of the fixture, with Premier David Crisafulli framing the agreement as part of a broader strategy to establish the state as Australia’s events capital ahead of the 2032 Olympic Games.

“We are bringing the Bledisloe Cup to Queensland, with an historic agreement to lock in Anzac Day tests until 2031,” Crisafulli said. “This is part of our plan to deliver new signature events for Queensland, grow tourism and support Queensland jobs.”

The venue choice carries historical resonance — Queensland hosted the first ever test match between Australia and New Zealand in 1907, more than a century before the Bledisloe Cup itself was established.

The larger question for the rugby landscape concerns the impact on Super Rugby Pacific. With the All Blacks’ 2027 season now beginning in April rather than the traditional July window, the early rounds of the domestic competition will carry an added layer of selection intrigue. Lancaster indicated the concept had been discussed extensively with New Zealand’s Super Rugby clubs.

“The Anzac Day Bledisloe Test adds another key moment during the Super Rugby Pacific season as the early rounds will have the added element of selection intrigue ahead of this match,” Lancaster said. “We’ve worked closely with our clubs to ensure it gives fans another compelling reason to engage with the competition across the season.”

The 2027 Super Rugby Pacific format is expected to be confirmed in the coming weeks, and the Anzac Day fixture will inevitably shape the structure of the competition calendar. Departing Crusaders coach Rob Penney has already voiced his support, saying the club thought it was “a great idea” and that whatever was needed to keep rugby at the forefront of people’s minds should be embraced.

The bigger picture

Lancaster was also keen to highlight the strategic value of an early-season test match in years that carry particular significance on the world rugby calendar.

“We’ve worked with the All Blacks who see value in an early test match in Rugby World Cup and men’s Lions tour years,” he said. “We know the team will embrace the challenge of two matches in Australia and look forward to them playing in front of the thousands of New Zealanders who now call it home, and the many we know will head across the Tasman for the match.”

That the 2027 fixture falls in a Rugby World Cup year — with the tournament to be hosted by Australia — adds an extra dimension. An Anzac Day test in Brisbane just months before the Wallabies host the world will serve as a statement of intent for the host nation and a form guide for both sides.

For the Wallabies, the stakes are clear. Australia has not held the Bledisloe Cup since losing it in 2003, and every additional fixture against the All Blacks represents both an opportunity and a reminder of the mountain still to be climbed. The hope within Rugby Australia will be that the occasion, the venue, and the weight of the date itself might finally provide the spark that shifts the balance of power back across the Tasman.

For the All Blacks, it is a chance to embrace a tradition that rugby league has long made its own. The NRL’s Anzac Day fixtures — particularly the annual clash between the Sydney Roosters and St George Illawarra — are among the most watched events on the Australian sporting calendar. Rugby union’s belated arrival to the party reflects a sport finally willing to compete for attention on the days that matter most.

Ticketing details and further match information will be announced at a later date.

World Rugby has confirmed that the legal tackle height in community rugby will be permanently lowered from 1 July, marking the most significant law change to the grassroots game in years.

The World Rugby Council, meeting in Dublin, voted to adopt the lower tackle height into full law following two years of global trials involving more than 150,000 studied tackles across 10 national unions. Under the new law, unions will have the choice of setting either the waist or the base of the sternum as the upper legal limit for tacklers.

The change will mean little practical difference for community rugby in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, all of which have been operating under the trial laws since the 2023/24 season. However, it now locks the lower tackle height into the global law book, ensuring consistency across all community rugby worldwide.

World Rugby Chairman Brett Robinson said the decision was driven by player welfare. “I welcome the adoption of a lower tackle height into community law,” Robinson said. “I would like to thank all the unions and academics and most importantly players and referees who took part in the trials that have helped us to reach this point. The trials from around the world show that this is the right thing to do to make our game safer and more enjoyable for community players who are the lifeblood of our sport.”

The governing body’s trials demonstrated that a lower legal tackle height was effective in reducing the number of upright tackles, which are considered the most likely to cause avoidable head impacts. A landmark study conducted by the IRFU and the University of Limerick, published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, provided some of the most compelling evidence in favour of the change. The research analysed more than 86,000 hours of match play across men’s, women’s and schoolboy rugby in Ireland, comparing several seasons under the traditional armpit-height tackle law with two seasons under the lower sternum-height rule.

The results were striking. In men’s All-Ireland League matches, concussions from tackle events fell by 38 per cent during the trial period, while overall match injuries dropped by 18 per cent. The women’s game saw even more pronounced improvements, with tackle-related concussion rates falling by 63 per cent and overall injuries decreasing by 30 per cent.

The findings carry particular significance for the women’s game, which has experienced rapid growth in Ireland and internationally in recent years. However, the study also revealed a more complex picture in the schoolboy game, where tackle-related concussion rates rose slightly, though researchers stressed the increase was not statistically significant. Overall injury rates among schoolboy players did fall by 19 per cent during the trial.

Dr Lauren Guilfoyle, one of the study’s lead authors, described it as “the first study in community rugby worldwide to report such positive findings.” She added: “While other studies have indicated that lowering the legal tackle height can change player behaviour, this is the first study to report a significantly positive impact on concussion and overall injury rates.”

Dr Guilfoyle, who previously worked with the Irish Rugby Injury Surveillance project at the University of Limerick and is now based at the University of Edinburgh, suggested that adult players’ greater technical ability and quicker adaptation to rule changes may explain the difference in outcomes between the adult and schoolboy game. The physical development of growing teenage players could also be a factor.

“Lowering the tackle height aimed to influence tackling behaviour and reduce risk of head impacts, but it does not address other factors linked to injury risk — such as strength or joint stability, which can vary more widely in younger players,” she said.

The rollout of the lower tackle height has not been without controversy. The introduction in England in 2023 was initially botched, with the RFU first announcing that tackles would be limited to waist and below before revising the mandate to the base of the sternum following an outcry from clubs. Unions will retain the ability to use World Rugby’s Game On community law variations to adapt secondary laws in areas such as pick and go and double tackles, providing some flexibility in how the law is applied at ground level.

The decision also signals the direction of travel for the professional game. Initial trials of a lower legal tackle height at elite level will take place at the World Rugby Junior World Championship in Georgia, which runs from 27 June to 18 July. World Rugby Vice-Chair Jonathan Webb said in December that if the trials proved successful, the governing body would face an “all or nothing” decision about whether to implement the change across the professional game.

Alongside the tackle height change, the World Rugby Council also voted to adopt several other successful trial laws. The scrum brake foot, which reduces axial loading and pressure on heads and necks in the scrum, has been made permanent. Restrictions on water carriers entering the field of play have been formalised, the Television Match Official has been confirmed as a formal part of the officiating team, and elite competitions will retain the option of using 20-minute red cards if they choose.

Robinson struck a bullish tone on rugby’s approach to player safety. “Rugby has always led the way when it comes to making considered changes to improve the welfare of our players,” he said. “Alongside provisions such as smart mouthguards in the elite game, we’ve shown time and again that we’ll make the big calls and that we’re getting them right, backed by the evidence.”

All amendments come into force from 1 July 2026 for seasons beginning after that date.

Former All Blacks scrum-half TJ Perenara will captain a Barbarians side packed with international pedigree when Scott Robertson’s men take on the world champion Springboks in the YesPlay Cup at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha on Saturday. The 89-cap halfback, who last donned the famous black and white jersey in a victory over Fiji at Twickenham in 2013, leads a squad featuring 19 internationals drawn from 11 different nations — a selection that embodies the invitational club’s cosmopolitan traditions while carrying enough quality to test Rassie Erasmus’s charges in front of a home crowd.

Key team news:

• TJ Perenara (89 caps, All Blacks) captains the side in his second Barbarians appearance
• Former Springbok Warrick Gelant starts at fullback against his countrymen, reuniting with former Outeniqua High School teammate Duhan van der Merwe
• France international Virimi Vakatawa (32 caps) and Munster’s Alex Nankivell form a powerful midfield combination
• Argentina fly-half Tomás Albornoz partners Perenara at half-back
• Samoan number eight Miracle Fai’ilagi earns a starting berth in a multinational forward pack
• Scott Robertson, the former All Blacks head coach, takes charge of the Barbarians for the fixture
• Strong South American presence on the bench with Argentina’s Leonel Oviedo and Pedro Delgado alongside Uruguay’s Santiago Arata

The headline selection story sits in the back three, where former Springbok fullback Warrick Gelant will line up against the country of his birth. The 31-year-old Stormers back, who won 11 caps for South Africa between 2017 and 2022 and was part of the 2019 Rugby World Cup-winning squad, has always been a player whose instinct for counter-attack and willingness to chance his arm align perfectly with the Barbarians ethos. Gelant’s selection adds a layer of personal narrative to the occasion, not least because he will be reunited with Duhan van der Merwe, his former schoolmate at Outeniqua High School in George. Van der Merwe, who has since carved out a distinguished career with Scotland and the British & Irish Lions, will patrol the left wing, while Wallabies flyer Andrew Kellaway completes an all-international back three brimming with finishing ability.

Our team to play @Springboks 🇿🇦

Let’s go 🙌🙌🙌

⚫️⚪️⚫️ pic.twitter.com/ArJaJoiBrW

— Barbarian FC (@Barbarian_FC) June 17, 2026

Inside them, the midfield pairing of Alex Nankivell and Virimi Vakatawa promises to be one of the most intriguing match-ups of the afternoon. New Zealander Nankivell made 20 appearances for Munster during the 2025/26 season and was a key figure in the Irish province’s run to the URC play-offs, bringing abrasive carrying and slick distribution in equal measure. Vakatawa, the New Zealand-born Fijian who earned 32 Test caps for France during a prolific international career, has been plying his trade with the Fijian Drua in Super Rugby Pacific this season and retains the power and offloading ability that made him one of European rugby’s most destructive centres at his peak.

Springbok centre Andre Esterhuizen, who will line up in direct opposition alongside Jesse Kriel, was respectful of the challenge the Barbarians’ midfield duo will present.

“It’s a powerhouse centre pairing,” said Esterhuizen. “Alex Nankivell is a strong, abrasive runner with good offloading skills and good distribution. And we’ve all seen Virimi Vakatawa play for France. He’s a very experienced centre who’s been around for a long time. He’s also a strong ball-carrier. So it’s going to be a good battle in the centres.”

At half-back, Perenara will partner Toulon and Argentina fly-half Tomás Albornoz, a combination that blends the veteran scrum-half’s nous and tempo control with the Puma playmaker’s range of kicking and running threat. It will be Perenara’s first appearance in the famous jersey in 13 years, and the 34-year-old will be keen to leave his mark on the captaincy in what shapes as one of the invitational club’s most high-profile fixtures in recent memory.

The forward pack, while perhaps lacking the sheer star power of the backline, carries considerable international experience. The front row is an entirely multinational affair: Gloucester’s Argentine loosehead Mayco Vivas scrummages alongside Dragons and Wales hooker Elliot Dee and Edinburgh and Scotland tighthead D’Arcy Rae. It is a unit that will need to hold its own against a Springbok scrum anchored by Ox Nche and the uncapped Carlu Sadie if the Barbarians’ dangerous backs are to see enough quality ball.

The second row pairs Western Force and Los Pumas lock Franco Molina with Bayonne’s Alex Moon, the sole Englishman in the starting XV, in a towering engine room combination. In the back row, Harlequins and Argentina stalwart Guido Petti — who has represented Los Pumas across multiple Rugby World Cups — lines up at blindside flanker, with Panasonic Wild Knights openside Lachlan Boshier adding New Zealand breakdown expertise on the other flank. The number eight jersey goes to Samoa’s Miracle Fai’ilagi, whose explosive carrying and athletic lineout work have marked him out as one of the Pacific Islands’ most exciting emerging talents.

Robertson, the former All Blacks head coach who guided New Zealand through the 2025 international season, struck an enthusiastic tone when naming his squad. The Barbarians lost 54-7 to the Springboks in Cape Town last year in the invitational side’s first-ever fixture on South African soil, and Robertson is determined to produce a more competitive showing this time around.

“We are all really excited for Saturday afternoon. To play against the world champions in South Africa is an awesome opportunity,” said Robertson. “We have embraced the Barbarians spirit and tradition this week, coming together as a group and enjoying each other’s company in Cape Town.”

“It’s a team packed with talent, guys who have come from all over the world and have a great chance to showcase their ability in Port Elizabeth. We want to express ourselves and do the famous black and white jersey proud.”

The replacements bench carries a distinctly South American flavour. Los Pumas hooker Leonel Oviedo and tighthead Pedro Delgado are joined by Uruguay’s exciting scrum-half Santiago Arata, adding Tier Two representation to the squad. Elsewhere among the substitutes, Scotland-capped Stormers loosehead Oli Kebble provides set-piece depth, Australian lock Izack Rodda offers second-row cover, Scotland’s Liam McConnell adds back-row options, and New Zealand fly-half Harry Plummer gives Robertson a second playmaking option from the bench. The final replacement slot goes to Fijian Tuidraki Samusamuvodre, whose selection adds a further injection of Pacific Islands flair to the group.

The challenge facing Robertson’s hastily assembled squad is considerable. The Springboks, even in a non-cap fixture, have named a matchday 23 containing 18 capped internationals, with Siya Kolisi captaining a side that includes the likes of Cheslin Kolbe, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Jasper Wiese. But the Barbarians have never been a side defined by preparation time or familiarity — their tradition is built on instinct, adventure and the chemistry that emerges when talented players from different rugby cultures come together with freedom to express themselves.

For Gelant in particular, the occasion carries a personal edge. The chance to play against the Springbok jersey he once wore, alongside the schoolmate who chose a different international path, is the sort of storyline the Barbarians were made for. Whether the visitors can translate that narrative into something more competitive than last year’s heavy defeat in Cape Town remains to be seen, but with Perenara marshalling proceedings and a backline loaded with X-factor, they will not lack for ambition.

Barbarians team to face the Springboks:

15. Warrick Gelant (DHL Stormers / South Africa, 11 caps)
14. Andrew Kellaway (Australia)
13. Virimi Vakatawa (Fijian Drua / France, 32 caps)
12. Alex Nankivell (Munster / New Zealand)
11. Duhan van der Merwe (Scotland / British & Irish Lions)
10. Tomás Albornoz (Toulon / Argentina)
9. TJ Perenara (captain / New Zealand, 89 caps)
8. Miracle Fai’ilagi (Samoa)
7. Lachlan Boshier (Panasonic Wild Knights / New Zealand)
6. Guido Petti (Harlequins / Argentina)
5. Alex Moon (Bayonne / England)
4. Franco Molina (Western Force / Argentina)
3. D’Arcy Rae (Edinburgh / Scotland)
2. Elliot Dee (Dragons RFC / Wales)
1. Mayco Vivas (Gloucester / Argentina)

Replacements:
16. Leonel Oviedo (Argentina)
17. Oli Kebble (DHL Stormers / Scotland)
18. Pedro Delgado (Argentina)
19. Izack Rodda (Australia)
20. Liam McConnell (Scotland)
21. Santiago Arata (Uruguay)
22. Harry Plummer (New Zealand)
23. Tuidraki Samusamuvodre (Fiji)

Match details: Barbarians v South Africa (YesPlay Cup), Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Gqeberha. Saturday 20 June, 15:00 (SAST) / 13:00 (GMT). Live on SuperSport.