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The Vodafone Warriors will be leaving their Australia base to play five home matches at Mt Smart Stadium in the 2022 NRL season - almost three years after their last game in Auckland.

Released today, the NRL’s 2022 season draw shows that the Warriors will play at their Auckland home as of round 15 on Saturday 18th June - their first match in New Zealand since 30th August 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

If that match goes ahead, it will end a 1023-day exile, with trans-Tasman COVID-19 travel restrictions having forced the Warriors to play their ‘home’ games during the 2020 and 2021 seasons at Central Coast Stadium in NSW.

Beyond the 18th June fixture against reigning NRL premiers Penrith Panthers, the other scheduled Mt Smart Stadium fixtures are round 16 (Wests Tigers), round 20 (Melbourne Storm), round 22 (Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs) and round 25 (Gold Coast Titans).

All of the matches will be staged on a fly-in, fly-out basis, with both teams arriving within 72 hours of the match.

It was seen as the most pragmatic solution, given the ongoing border uncertainty, with the club based Redcliffe’s Moreton Daily Stadium in south east Queensland as of next season.

The Warriors will also play five ‘home’ games at the Redcliffe venue - set to be home to NRL newcomer the Redcliffe Dolphins as of 2023 - while also playing one ‘home’ game at Sunshine Coast Stadium and Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium, with the latter to form part of the league’s Magic Round.

From next year, Mount Smart Stadium will also serve as the home of Moana Pasifika, a new Super Rugby franchise that will make its debut in the competition in 2022.

The deal with Auckland Limited, the region’s economic and cultural agency, will run from 2022 to 2028 and provides Moana Pasifika with a training ground base as well as a home stadium.

Moana Pasifika patron, Tuifa’asisina Sir Bryan Williams, said that while New Zealand will be the team’s base for the foreseeable future, its long-term aim is to establish roots in the Pacific islands. Super Rugby already has one Auckland-based team, the Blues, which play at Eden Park.

Image: Warriors fans at Mt Smart Stadium. Credit: Vodafone Warriors.

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