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Southern Orcas NRL bid team to try to bring a State of Origin game to New Zealand
Stuff sports reporters
February 19, 2025 •07:56am
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Warriors prop Mitchell Barnett takes the ball up for New South Wales against Queensland in the 2024 State of Origin series.Dave Hunt/AAP via Photosport
fast facts
- Sir Graham Lowe is behind the bid to bring a State of Origin rugby league game to NZ, possibly Christchurch.
- A three-game State of Origin series is played each year between NSW and Queensland.
- Lowe chairs the Southern Orcas bid team trying to secure a NRL franchise in Christchurch.
A group led by former Kiwis rugby league coach Sir Graham Lowe says it has “well-advanced plans” to bring Australia’s biggest sporting rivalry, State of Origin, to New Zealand for the first time.
Lowe, the only Kiwi to ever coach in the Queensland-New South Wales inter-state series, confirmed the plans on Wednesday.
Lowe said the group had already had positive preliminary talks with both the New Zealand government and the management of the new Christchurch stadium, Te Kaha.
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Lowe and the others involved are also behind the Southern Orcas’ bid to become the 20th NRL franchise.
He said the group were open-minded whether they would take the game to Auckland, Christchurch or Wellington but said a game at Te Kaha would be an ideal springboard for the Orcas franchise. Lowe said Orcas managing director Andrew Chalmers had met with Te Kaha staff last week about the prospect of an Origin game at the all-seater stadium.
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Te Kaha - due for completion in 2026 - will have 30,000 seats for sporting events. Wellington’s Sky Stadium has 34,500 and Auckland’s Eden Park 50,000.
The 2024 State of Origin series was played at Sydney’s Accor Stadium (77,214 spectators), the Melbourne Cricket Ground (90,084) and Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium (52,457).
Lowe said he intended to table a formal bid with the NRL early next month. With the NRL taking one game from each series to a neutral venue and contracts already in place with Melbourne and Perth, he said he understood the next available Origin would be in 2027.
“I know from first-hand experience what an amazing sporting experience State of Origin is,” said Lowe, who coached Queensland in 1991-92. “I’ve always wanted Kiwi sports fans to experience that atmosphere on home soil.
“The game is booming here and it’s the perfect time for the NRL to capitalise on that by bringing an Origin game to New Zealand. I guarantee it would sell out quickly.
Southern Orcas chairman Sir Graham Lowe.Southern Orcas
“And it would be great for our tourism industry as I can imagine thousands of Aussie fans would love to come over and combine it with some skiing in Queenstown or a trip to Milford Sound.”
Lowe said the Orcas plans were continuing to progress and they would have some exciting developments to announce soon.
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“I am hugely confident that we will become the 20th franchise in the NRL competition - it’s just a matter of when,” he said. “A huge amount of work and planning has gone on behind the scenes and we are ready to go.”
- Stuff