The Brisbane Global Tens, to be played at Suncorp Stadium on February 11-12 next year, have announced the pools on Wednesday in which the 12 teams will compete across the weekend.
Key information, pools, draw
» All the team news from the Brisbane Tens
The competition will feature some of the best talent in any of the Australian teams, with contractual obligations ensuring the tournament will not be undervalued.
All five Australian teams will participate in the competition, with the NSW Waratahs and Melbourne Rebels headlining Group A, and the rest split evenly – the Reds in Group B, the Brumbies in Group C and the Western Force in Group D.
They will be joined by all five New Zealand Super Rugby teams, with the Chiefs to join the Waratahs and Rebels in Group A. The Blues and Crusaders will form Group B, while the Highlanders and Hurricanes are in Group C and D respectively.
The other international teams will be the Samoan International team, the Wild Knights from Ota City in Japan, South African club the Blue Bulls and French glamour club Toulon.
The Super Rugby competition kicks off just two weeks after the tens, and it’s being billed as the major warmup tournament before the start of the season.
Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson was present as the pools were unveiled, and while also saying the Waratahs will take on the Hurricanes in a proper trial after the tournament, said the Tens will be an important event.
“It works out well for all teams, gets everyone here and it’s an opportunity for us to really kick off our pre-season,” Gibson said.
“Given the draw and what they’re planning around the event, it’s good to be a part of and it falls into a part of the (year) that’s really important to our pre-season plans.
“It’s an exciting concept, an important showcase for our code.”
The official fixtures for the competition will be announced in the weeks leading up, with the weekend expected to be broken up into four blocks – Round 1 on Saturday Morning, Round 2 on Saturday Afternoon, Round 3 on Sunday Morning and the finals to close it out into Sunday Evening.
This will follow a similar structure used by the World Sevens competition, which plays all year round.
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