2024 February, the Gallagher Chiefs and Blues will travel for their Super Rugby pre-season. They will play four teams from Japan Rugby’s League One in the newly formed “Cross-Border Rugby 2024,” which pits the two New Zealand DHL Super Rugby Pacific teams against each other.
The games are scheduled for early February, with the goal of establishing the exchange as a regular event on the rugby schedule in the upcoming years. When the Gallagher Chiefs play the Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights on February 4, they’ll get to see former comrade Lachlan Boshier again. The Kubota Spears Funabashi – Tokyo Bay, who recently added All Blacks hooker Dane Coles, will host them the following weekend.
The Gallagher Chiefs and Blues are playing preseason games in Japan, which is fantastic. We recognized this as an opportunity when we signed the Memorandum of Understanding with Japan Rugby earlier this year, so it’s good to see it materialize.
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Chiefs, Blues Super Rugby pre-season 2024 Match Schedule:
Match 1: February 3, 2024 (Saturday) – Tokyo Suntory Sungoliath vs Blues at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium
Match 2: February 4, 2024 (Sunday) – Saitama Panasonic Wild Knights vs Gallagher Chiefs at Kumagaya Rugby Stadium
Match 3: February 10, 2024 (Saturday) – Kubota Spears Funabashi-Tokyo Bay vs Gallagher Chiefs at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium
Match 4: February 10, 2024 (Saturday) – Yokohama Canon Eagles vs Blues at Nippatsu Mitsuzawa Stadium
Gallagher Chiefs take pre-season to Japan for Super Rugby pre-season
The competition was made feasible according to Chiefs Rugby Club CEO Simon Graafhuis by the Memorandum of Understanding that New Zealand Rugby and the Japan Rugby Union signed in May of this year.
Together with the Blues, we will have the ability to exhibit the New Zealand brand of Super Rugby and take use of the wonderful opportunity the MoU provides to expose the Gallagher Chiefs outside of the usual markets of Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.
There will be a strong demand for the games as seen by JRU’s excitement about the tournament and the reaction of the community to the All Blacks and All Blacks XV games. With any luck this will increase the number of our Japanese fans.
The Chiefs have a lengthy history with the Kobelco Kobe Steelers, therefore they are no strangers in Japan.
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The Blues will play Suntory Sungoliath in Tokyo for Super Rugby pre-season
The Blues will play Cane’s Sungoliath team, which also has Welsh international and former Chiefs and Blues representative Gareth Anscombe, in the opening game on Saturday, February 3. The following week, they will play the Eagles, where former Blues lock Liaki Moli now plays.
Before the actual competition begins on February 23, the Blues and Chiefs will play one last exhibition game in Auckland.