With 20-week-old twins in her arms, the last thing that former Black Fern Aroha Savage was expecting was a call from nib Blues coach Willie Walker.

The call was to inquire if Savage, a 33-capped No 8 for the Black Ferns and formerly with Auckland, Counties Manukau and Northland, would consider a return to the game.

After careful thought, Savage agreed, but when the next call came from Walker, it shocked her more. It was to ask if she would accept the role as captain for the inaugural Sky Super Rugby Aupiki competition.

A new super rugby partnership with Te Hiringa Hauora | Health Promotion Agency will place health and wellbeing as the winner on the day, when the competition whistle blows next week. Te Hiringa Hauora is teaming up with three Sky Super Rugby Aupiki teams at this year’s inaugural women’s super-rugby competition to be played in Taupō and Hamilton.

The Blues are coming home to rugby’s spiritual home of Eden Park next week.

After a month in a bubble in Queenstown, the Blues are set to take on neighbours the Chiefs at Eden Park next Saturday, 5 March in the third round of the DHL Super Rugby Pacific competition.

The Blues will welcome eight All Blacks, past or present, into their line-up for the first appearance in the DHL Super Rugby Pacific.

They take on the Hurricanes, who impressed in their opening loss against the Crusaders, at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin on Saturday night.

New Zealand Rugby (NZR) has made the decision to relocate the four Sky Super Rugby Aupiki squads to Taupō to ensure the inaugural season of the competition can take place.

The DHL Super Rugby Pacific Round 2 draw has been reshuffled to give Moana Pasifika more time to prepare for their match against the Chiefs. The announced changes do not affect the draw for any Round 2 matches played in Australia.

Blues and All Black flanker Dalton Papalii is tackling youth mental health in 2022.

The dynamic international No 7, is adding mental health awareness to his growing list of responsibilities, after being announced Blues skipper this year. He will donate $7 for every tackle he makes this season to New Zealand mental health charity I Am Hope.

Komatsu’s partnership with the nib Blues starting with the inaugural Sky Super Rugby Aupiki women’s rugby competition next month will reinforce a drive by the earthmoving machinery innovator to achieve gender equality in its own workplace.

The Blues have announced a two-year collaboration with the global utility, construction, and mining equipment manufacturer to become an official partner of the nib Blues Women’s team beginning with the Sky Super Rugby Aupiki.

The nib Blues has received a significant and unexpected boost with former Black Ferns lock Charmaine Smith making a return to the game.

One of the players in the DHL Super Rugby Pacific bubble in Queenstown has this evening been identified as a possible close contact of a confirmed COVID case and team protocols have been applied.

The player, a member of the Blues camp, and his roommate, have as a precaution been isolated from the rest of the group in line with public health protocols. The team doctor is conducting a PCR test to supplement the twice-weekly Rapid Antigen Tests all teams are receiving.

Twenty-four-year-old All Black loose forward Dalton Papalii has been named as captain of the Blues for the 2022 Super Rugby Pacific season.

The Blues will have most of their squad available to play in the first pre-season game against the Hurricanes in Wellington on Sunday.

The Blues are backing the work by all New Zealand-based Super Rugby Clubs and NZ Rugby, to establish a bubble to ensure the Super Rugby Pacific competition goes ahead uninterrupted by Covid.

In consultation with all six New Zealand-based Super Rugby Clubs, NZR has made the decision to relocate the New Zealand-based Super Rugby Pacific squads to Queenstown to mitigate against the risk of COVID-19.

Blues forwards coach Tom Coventry has extended his tenure at the club for further two years.

Coventry is one of only a handful of coaches to have won multiple Super Rugby titles at different clubs, with success in winning last year’s Trans Tasman Trophy at the Blues and two Super Rugby crowns at the Chiefs.

The nib Blues women will kick-off the inaugural Sky Super Rugby Aupiki competition against Chiefs Manawa in an exciting double header with the men.

This will mirror the historic first women’s match against Super Rugby clubs last year, set for Eden Park on Saturday 5 March.

The Blues have been forced to change venue for their pre-season game against the Hurricanes to Onewa Domain in Takapuna on Saturday 5 February.

The positive momentum for the Blues continues with the announcement that a consortium of eminent New Zealand business people will take a significant shareholding in the organisation.

The Better Blues Company Limited will purchase the 40 per cent holding in the Blues which was held by New Zealand Rugby (NZR) who bought back the shareholding from the previous private owners three years ago.

The rugby unions on both sides of the Tasman have been working overtime with the latest Covid-travel restrictions to produce a revamped draw for the 2022 Super Rugby Pacific competition. 

A few days after the “Big Blues Bus” initiative generated more than 23,000 donations for the Auckland City Mission, than a group of partners have remained on board with the Blues.

The Super Rugby Trans-Tasman winners, who have made a number of high-profile player signings in the off-season, today confirmed nine partners have recommitted to the Blues.

They include media partners Mediaworks and Stuff, the Manukau Institute of Technology, ICT cohort Softsource and a group of suppliers have all signed back with the Blues.

The Blues will take on the Hurricanes at Mahurangi Rugby Club on Saturday 5 February, with a day of fun activities planned.

The match, to be hosted by Mahurangi Rugby Club and North Harbour Union, will be the only pre-season game in the region, and the Blues hope the Waitangi Weekend match will attract plenty of fans.

The Blues played the same opponents at Mahurangi in 2018 which saw a big attendance for the game.