2023 Waikato season draw announcement for the Bunnings Warehouse NPC.
Today New Zealand Rugby announced the Bunnings Warehouse National Provincial Championship (NPC) schedule for 2023.
Waikato’s Bunnings NPC campaign will kick off with three road games due to FMG Stadium Waikato being unavailable due to the FIFA Women’s World Cup matches being played at the stadium.
The first game will see the Mooloo Men travel to the deep south to face the Southland Stags (Sunday 6th August, 4:35pm) before they travel to Bay of Plenty to defend the Nathan Strongman Memorial trophy when they face the Steamers (Saturday 12th August, 2:05pm). This match will also be their first game of their storm week.
Wednesday’s midweek game will be against Hawke’s Bay Magpies (Wednesday 16th August, 7:05pm) before finishing off storm week at FMG Stadium Waikato against Taranaki Bulls (Sunday 20th August) with Waikato defending the Ryan Wheeler Memorial trophy in front of their home fans.
Week 4 of the competition will be another home game for Waikato, as they will host provincial neighbors, Counties Manukau (Sunday 27th August, 4:35pm). The team then heads up State Highway 1 to face North Harbour (Saturday 2nd September, 4:35pm) in Albany in their week 5 encounter. This match will see Waikato defend another piece of silverware the, Les Pearce Cup, which they are the current holders.
Wellington (Friday 8th September, 7:05pm) come to town in week 6 and both sides kickoff that game week on the Friday night. Before Waikato again travel back up State Highway 1, this time to face Auckland in the Battle of the Bombay’s as they look to retain the Stan Thomas Memorial trophy.
The final two regular season matches will see the team return to FMG Stadium Waikato for back-to-back afternoon home games in week 8 and 9. Firstly, Waikato will host Otago (Sunday 24th September, 4:35pm), before welcoming 2022 runners-up, Canterbury (Saturday 30th September, 2:05pm) the following Saturday to finish the regular season.
The Bunnings National Provincial Championship quarter finals will commence on Friday 6th October.
Article added: Tuesday 21 March 2023
