League fans have become accustomed to one of the three matches in a State of Origin series taking place in neutral territory, with 2017 the last series to follow the old tradition of the two teams swapping dual-home game privileges.
State governments in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia have for 15 years been throwing big bucks at the NRL to draw its marquee mid-season event outside of Queensland and New South Wales, and despite a neutral host city for 2026 not yet being confirmed -- though the MCG is a front-runner to hold the match -- it appears that our brothers in New Zealand have locked in an historic game for 2027.
Peter Badel of the Courier Mail revealed on Saturday that the ARLC and New Zealand government have agreed to the terms of a State of Origin match to take place at Auckland's 50,000-capacity Eden Park on a Wednesday night at the unprecedented kick-off time of 9:30pm local time, with Channel Nine agreeing to bring the game forward by 30 minutes on the east coast (from 8:00pm to 7:30pm) to facilitate the change.
Talks are also in place to send a Women's State of Origin game to Christchurch in 2026 as a precursor.
“Origin in NZ would rate the house down,” ARLC head Peter V’landys had previously said of the potential concept.
“We will keep trying new things to grow our audience and the one thing we have the AFL doesn’t is international appeal.
“We will keep growing. If New Zealand is the growth area, we will attack.”
The news comes on the same weekend that V'landys and NRL boss Andrew Abdo have jetsetted to London to not only attend the Kangaroos' opening Ashes game against England but also continue their pursuit of growing the NRL internationally, which could culminate in an entire Opening Round taking place outside of Australia.
In addition to the previously successful venture to Las Vegas, other international locations such as London, Dubai and Hong Kong have been floated as potential bases for a global 'Magic Round' of sorts.
It would technically be the first competitive Origin match to be played overseas, though New South Wales and Queensland did head to Long Beach, California in August 1987 to play a fourth game that was not counted towards the series result or all-time statistics.