Follow the action as Matatū host Chiefs Manawa at One New Zealand Stadium in the opening round of Super Rugby Aupiki. With movement in squads during the off-season and teams having had more time to prepare together, Porter expected the upcoming edition of Aupiki would be the most competitive yet, and that would be on show from the opening round of fixtures.A record crowd was expected for the Saturday evening clash between Matatū and Chiefs Manawa. In Matatū’s first game at Christchurch’s new One New Zealand Stadium, 10,000 tickets had already been sold on Friday afternoon.That was more than double the current attendance record for a standalone domestic women’s rugby fixture in New Zealand, with 4,800 turning up for the 2024 final between Blues Women and Chiefs Manawa at Eden Park.There will be plenty of new and relocated talent on show in week one, with about 40 players across the four squads running out for their team for the first time.Among them, Black Ferns fullback Renee Holmes will make her debut for Hurricanes Poua, while six-test Wallaroos playmaker Carys Dallinger makes her debut for Chiefs Manawa.“I think you’ll see some young new stars come out of it. I think that I would like to say that our Black Ferns players and those that are knocking on the door of that will stand up and take some leadership roles and you’ll be able to see that on the field,” New Zealand Rugby head of women’s high performance Hannah Porter said.“Am I going to say upsets? I reckon there’ll be some upsets in the first round and then the second round’s going to be pretty interesting.”Read the full preview here