Queensland saves Rugby Championship

Queensland will host the remainder of the Rugby Championship, with venues in Brisbane, Gold Coast and Townsville locked in.

With COVID-19 restrictions making it impossible to play scheduled matches in Sydney, Canberra and Newcastle, the games have now been moved north.

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Gold Coast will host a double header on September 12, with New Zealand playing Argentina and South Africa facing Australia.

On September 18, Suncorp Stadium will host matches between Argentina and New Zealand, and Australia and South Africa.

A week later the teams move to Townsville, with Australia to play Argentina and New Zealand to face South Africa.

The tournament wraps up on October 2 on the Gold Coast, with the same two matches as the week before.

The Bledisloe Cup match that was set down for Perth this weekend is still to be rescheduled.

"This is a world Rugby first and a truly special celebration of the game, in what I see as a once-in-a-lifetime event," said Rugby Australia boss Andy Marinos.

"We can't thank Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk enough, as well as Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young and John Lee of the Department of Tourism, Innovation and Sport and their respective departments for their support in making this tournament possible.

"What a fantastic tournament ahead for fans in Queensland. Four unmissable back-to-back double-headers featuring four of the very best Test nations in World Rugby – all in Queensland's backyard."

SANZAAR boss Brendan Morris said they were left with no alternative but to shift the tournament to Queensland.

"We thought last year was tough when we had to implement a Tri-Nations tournament in Australia with South Africa absent due to the pandemic, but the current disruption caused by the 'delta variant' of COVID-19 has seen government authorities tighten up border bio-security measures substantially," he said.

"This is understandable and therefore, we had no option but to basically move the remainder of The Rugby Championship to Queensland."

Tickets will go on sale next week.

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