2023 Super Rugby Aupiki season
The 2023 Super Rugby Aupiki season was the second season of Super Rugby Aupiki (known as Sky Super Rugby Aupiki for sponsorship reasons), a professional women's rugby union club competition organised by New Zealand Rugby. The competition ran from 25 February 2023when Hurricanes Poua and Chiefs Manawa played the opening match in Levinto 25 March 2023. The tournament was won by Matatū, who defeated Chiefs Manawa 33–31 in the final in Hamilton, earning them their first Super Rugby Aupiki title. That match also resulted in the Chiefs Manawa's first-ever loss in the two-year-old competition. Competition format
The competition featured four teams, who each played three regular season matches and two play-off matches. A total of ten matches were played over five weeks. The semi-finals were played on Sunday 19 March 2023 and the finalswhich also included a third place play-offon Saturday 25 March 2023. Standings
The standings at the end of the round-robin of the 2023 Super Rugby Aupiki season were:
 

Source: Sky Super Rugby Aupiki – Team standings

Matches

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Finals

Chiefs Manawa finished top of the table after winning all their matches during the regular season. In their semi-final, they faced fourth-placed Hurricanes Poua. Second-placed Matatū, who recorded their first-ever Super Rugby Aupiki win this season, took on Blues Women in the other semi-final. Both semifinal matches were played at the North Harbour Stadium in Albany on 19 March 2023. Chiefs Manawa continued their winning streak in the semi-final by defeating Hurricanes Poua 43–21, while Matatū reached the final after a narrow 26–23 win over Blues Women. The final between Chiefs Manawa and Matatū, as well as the third-place play-off between Blues Women and Hurricanes Poua, were played at FMG Stadium Waikato on 25 March 2023. The 2023 final was the first Super Rugby Aupiki final in the young competition's history, after the competition was reformatted to a round robin tournament in 2022, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Matatū were crowned as the new Super Rugby Aupiki champions after defeating Chiefs Manawa 33–31 in the final. It was Matatū's first title win and Chiefs Manawa's first-ever loss in Super Rugby Aupiki. Semifinals

Third place play-off

Final

Statistics

Leading point scorers

Source: Sky Super Rugby Aupiki: Player Stats

Leading try scorers

Source: Sky Super Rugby Aupiki: Player Stats

Discipline

Players

Squads 
The following squads have been named for the 2023 season. Players listed in italics denote non-original squad members:

References

External links 
 Official website

2023
2023 in women's rugby union
2023 in New Zealand women's sport
2023 in New Zealand rugby union