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All sixteen NRL clubs will return to action after a four-month layoff at the Auckland Nines at Eden Park over the weekend of February 4 and 5.
$2.4 million of prize money is up for grabs at the two-day tournament, with at least 12 of each club’s top 25 players, as well as one top-five player from each of the club’s salary cap, guaranteed to take part.
» View full squads for the Auckland Nines
Teams are separated into four pools with four teams in each pool and will play three round-robin matches in order to decide who progresses into the knockout rounds.
Matches are played with nine players per side and run for two nine-minute halves – as the name suggests.
The Nines kicks off at 10am on Saturday, February 4 and will run until 5:30pm that evening.
NRL sides will do battle with one another for the entirety of the day – with the exception of the 1:30pm timeslot which will see Australia’s and New Zealand’s women’s sides take to the pitch.
The second and final day of the competition begins at 8:35am on Sunday, February 5, and will conclude following the final and following presentation at 5:30pm.
Two more women’s games will be played on day two, at 1:55pm and 3:55pm respectively – both between the Australia and New Zealand national teams.
» View the full Auckland Nines draw and schedule
The Auckland Nines will be broadcast live through Foxtel on Fox Sports 1.
On Saturday the coverage begins at 10am AEDT and will conclude at 6pm AEDT. Then on Sunday, the coverage begins at 8:30am AEDT and again concludes at 6pm AEDT.
» Full details on how to stream the competition
2017 is the fourth iteration of the pre-season tournament, which has often been taken out by outsiders who have failed to replicate their form in 13-man format.
In 2014, the North Queensland Cowboys emerged victorious in the inaugural edition of the tournament – beating rivals the Brisbane Broncos 16-7 in the final.
In 2015, the South Sydney Rabbitohs bested the Cronulla Sharks 18-14 in extra time to put their name on the trophy.
Last year, the Parramatta Eels took out the tournament but were later stripped of their title owing to salary cap breaches. They smashed the New Zealand Warriors 22-4 in the final.
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