The Vodafone Warriors will use four different stadiums for their home games in the 2020 NRL season with nine at Mount Smart Stadium, another at Eden Park and one each in Wellington and in Brisbane.
The unveiling of the draw today has confirmed five of their 12 home games have been set down for Saturdays, five on Friday nights and two on Sundays.
The standout feature is the Vodafone Warriors’ historic first home game of the season when they join forces with the Blues in an unprecedented rugby league-rugby union double header at Eden Park on Saturday, March 21.
The event pits the Vodafone Warriors against 2019 beaten NRL grand finalists the Canberra Raiders in a second-round encounter while the Blues meet 2019 Super Rugby semi-finalists the Brumbies in an eighth-round contest.
And four weeks later the Vodafone Warriors entertain the premiership-winning Sydney Roosters at Mount Smart Stadium on Saturday, April 18.
Their first match of the year at their home ground is against Wests Tigers in the fourth round on Saturday, April 4 while the other seven opponents at Mount Smart Stadium are the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs (Friday, May 8), Melbourne Storm (Saturday, May 23), Brisbane Broncos (Friday, June 5), Gold Coast Titans (Friday, July 17), Penrith Panthers (Friday, July 31), Newcastle Knights (Sunday, August 9) and Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles (Friday, August 21).
In their other two home games the Vodafone Warriors will again be at Suncorp Stadium for the NRL’s Magic Round when they face Parramatta on Sunday, May 3 and they’ll also return to Wellington taking on North Queensland at the renamed SKY Stadium on Saturday, June 27.
It means the Vodafone Warriors will have home games against six of 2019’s top eight teams, the only exceptions being South Sydney and Cronulla.
As well as the Rabbitohs and the Sharks, the other clubs the Vodafone Warriors will meet only once will be St George Illawarra, Wests Tigers, Parramatta and Penrith.
While the Vodafone Warriors will travel to Melbourne, Canberra, Wollongong, Newcastle, Robina on the Gold Coast, Brisbane (twice), Kawana Waters on the Sunshine Coast and Townsville they’ll barely be seen in Sydney with just four games scheduled there. The first will be against Manly in round three in March followed by a long break before they have back-to-back away games against the Roosters (Saturday, July 4) and the Bulldogs (Friday, July 10) followed later by the final regular season match against Cronulla on Saturday, September 5.
The Vodafone Warriors will play just four home games at Mount Smart Stadium in the final 12 rounds of the season. They’ll on the road for four straight games in June-July against the Raiders, Cowboys (Wellington), Roosters and Bulldogs while the last four rounds will see them take on the Rabbitohs on the Sunshine Coast, back home to face the Sea Eagles and then finishing away against the Cowboys in Townsville and the Sharks in Sydney.
VODAFONE WARRIORS - 2020 NRL DRAW
(NB: local kick-off times listed)
1 Sat March 14 | 3.00pm | Knights, McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle
2 Sat March 21 | 5.00pm | Raiders, Eden Park, Auckland
3 Fri March 27 | 6.00pm | Sea Eagles, Lottoland, Sydney
4 Sat April 4 | 5.00pm | Tigers, Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland
5 Sun April 12 | 6.15pm | Dragons, WIN Stadium, Wollongong
6 Sat April 18 | 7.30pm | Roosters, Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland
7 Sat April 25 | 8.00pm | Storm, AAMI Park, Melbourne
8 Sun May 3 | 1.50pm | Eels, Suncorp Stadium (NRL Magic Round), Brisbane
9 Fri May 8 | 8.00pm | Bulldogs, Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland
10 Sat May 16 | 3.00pm | Titans, Cbus Super Stadium, Robina
11 Sat May 23 | 5.00pm | Storm, Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland
12 Bye
13 Fri June 5 | 8.00pm | Broncos, Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland
14 Sun June 14 | 2.05pm | Raiders, GIO Stadium, Canberra
15 Sat June 27 | 5.00pm | Cowboys, SKY Stadium, Wellington
16 Sat July 4 | 7.35pm | Roosters, Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney
17 Fri July 10 | 8.00pm | Bulldogs, Bankwest Stadium, Sydney
18 Fri July 17 | 8.00pm | Titans, Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland
19 Sat July 25 | 5.30pm | Broncos, Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
20 Fri July 31 | 8.00pm | Panthers, Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland
21 Sun August 9 | 4.05pm | Knights, Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland
22 Sat August 15 | 3.00pm | Rabbitohs, Sunshine Coast Stadium, Kawana Waters
23 Fri August 21 | 8.00pm | Sea Eagles, Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland
24 Sat August 29 | 5.30pm | Cowboys, North Queensland Stadium, Townsville
25 Sat September 5 | 3.00pm | Sharks, WIN Jubilee Oval, Sydney
FINALS
1 September 11-13 | Qualifying Semi Finals
2 September 18-19 | Semi Finals
3 September 25-26 | Preliminary Finals
4 October 4 | Grand Final
