Friday-night fever for Highlanders

The Highlanders have plenty of Friday night football in store next year. Photo: Getty Images
The Highlanders have plenty of Friday night football in store next year. Photo: Getty Images
The Highlanders will have plenty of Friday-night action in next year's Super Rugby competition.

The draw for the 2019 competition was released yesterday - before this year's competition is even finished - and the Highlanders have a draw that is neither bad nor great.

The draw is not usually released until September but came out yesterday as teams look to get grounds booked and arrange logistics.

The season will start a week earlier for New Zealand and Australian teams next year.

Draws, in the end, are a moot point. You make the most of what you get dealt.

With the World Cup in Japan next year, there are no incoming tours from northern hemisphere teams in June.

So Super Rugby will not take a break in June and will flow through unabated from its mid-February start.

In something of a good omen, the last time this occurred was in 2015, when the Highlanders won the competition.

The Highlanders will kick off next year's competition with a game against the Chiefs, most likely in Hamilton, and will follow that with a home game against the Reds.

The side has its first bye after six games and then plays a block of eight straight games before having its second bye. The second bye is after it gets back from South Africa.

The side does not play the Brumbies and the Sharks from the Australian and South African conferences.

It will play the Sunwolves in Tokyo in late April - the first time the Highlanders will play a Super Rugby game in Japan - while the Jaguares will play their first game under the roof at the stadium against the Highlanders.

Nine of the side's 16 games, including six of its first seven, will be played on Friday nights. Of its eight home games, five will be played on Friday nights.

It does not venture to South Africa until round 14 and will play the Lions and Stormers there.

The venues for the games will be confirmed in October but seven of the side's home games are likely to be played at Forsyth Barr Stadium.

The Highlanders will play a home game against the Chiefs this season in Fiji later this month.

Whether that will be repeated next year will most likely depend on the crowd they get in Fiji and the crowd in Invercargill next week for the game between the Highlanders and the French Barbarians.

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