North Shore will celebrate their 150th anniversary by facing Auckland heavyweights Ponsonby in the opening round of the Wider Auckland Club Knockout competition this March.
The three-week long schedule has today been confirmed with four huge matches set to kick-off the opening weekend of the competition that includes the best teams from North Harbour, Auckland and Counties Manukau.
Auckland’s Gallaher Shield winners Manukau will take on Counties Manukau runners-up Patumahoe elsewhere in round 1 action on March 11. McNamara Cup champions Manurewa (Counties Manukau) will meet Grammar TEC from Auckland while East Auckland outfit Pakuranga will play Karaka from Counties Manukau.
Round 2 will consist of the four winning sides playing each other and the four losing sides will also play each other. Round 3 will follow suit, thus all teams are guaranteed three games.
The winner of the North Shore v Ponsonby game will meet the winner of the Pakuranga v Karaka match in the second round while the winners of the other two games will square-off in the other semi-final – those games will be held on March 18.
The final is set to be played on March 25 but could move to March 26 to serve as a curtain-raiser to the Blues Super Rugby match.
“There is some intriguing first round match-ups that promise to get the competition off with a bang,” competition driver Craig Carter said.
“The interest from the clubs has been great and we are all looking forward to getting this competition underway.”
The Pool 2 draw will be finalised on Monday, so look out for that featuring teams from the three provinces.
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