The NPC Premiership final will be at Sky Stadium in Wellington at 2:30 pm next Saturday after Wellington beat Waikato 29-24 to set up a showdown with Bay of Plenty who overpowered Canterbury 32-20 in Tauranga. Bay of Plenty and Wellington each trailed at halftime in earning their passage to the decider.
Bay of Plenty are through to the NPC Final after a second-half point-scoring clinic saw them get the better of Canterbury.
The stage is set for both NPC semi-finals with Bay of Plenty, Canterbury, Wellington and Waikato naming their teams.
It's semi-finals Sunday at the World Rugby U20 Championship and following last Tuesday’s weather-affected schedule, the hope will be that all six matches will be played to an 80-minute conclusion unlike on match day three when there were just four and a half matches completed due to the heavy rain making pitches unplayable.
Knowing they effectively had a ‘gimme’ versus minnows Spain on match day three, they rested numerous first-choice players but they will now run out at the DHL Stadium with a team that has 10 alterations from last Tuesday in Stellenbosch.
Three matches are scheduled for Athlone: Ireland-Australia (2pm local time), France-Wales (4:30pm) and South Africa-England (7pm). Over in Stellenbosch, it’s Argentina-Fiji (2pm), Georgia-Italy (4:30pm) and New Zealand-Spain (7pm).
Three matches are scheduled for Stellenbosch: Ireland vs Georgia (kick-off 2pm local), France vs New Zealand (4:30pm) and South Africa vs Argentina (7pm). Over in Athlone, Wales vs Spain is the opening match (2pm) followed by England vs Fiji (4:30pm) and Australia vs Italy (7pm).
The Kiwis got the show on the road with a 41-34 Pool A win over Wales at Athlone and they have now changed three forwards and two backs for their eagerly anticipated clash with the French.
The final week of the Super Rugby Pacific season saw the final playoff spot secured by the Fijian Drua after a big win over the Melbourne Rebels.
Head coach Jono Gibbes has made seven changes to the New Zealand U20 squad that defeated Argentina on Tuesday.