International rugby franchises will descend on Brisbane next February, with the inaugural Brisbane Global Tens.
Fourteen sides will take part in the competition, five each from Australia and New Zealand along with four invitational international sides, which this year will be Japanese Top League’s Panasonic Wild Knights, French heavyweights Toulon, South Africa’s Bulls and a Samoa side.
The tournament was developed by Duco Events, the company behind the ultra-successful Auckland Nines in NRL.
Event organisers hope the tournament will play a part of preseason for the Australian and New Zealand teams heading into their franchise’s seasons.
Reds fullback Karmichael Hunt is one of those especially keen to
"For Brisbane to get the rights for the competition, I'm very happy being a Brisbanite and obviously being a Reds player and we're really looking forward to being involved," he said.
His Queensland teammate, hooker Andrew Ready welcomed the addition of the tournament in the preseason, with a more forwards-friendly format than the speed-based Sevens format.
Former Wallabies and Crusaders coach Robbie Deans is now the mentor at the Panasonic Wild Knights, who have won three consecutive Top League titles, and said this would be a major coup for rugby.
“You could argue that this will be the biggest gathering of world class rugby players in one city in the history of the game,” he said.
“ To gather all these teams together in one place is a remarkable achievement. I’m really looking forward to seeing how our boys stack up against the likes of Toulon.
“The timing is great as a lead-in to the 2017 season proper. Suncorp is the perfect venue for an event like this. Caxton Street will be buzzing.
“Tens involves a greater variety of players than sevens but will be faster than 15-a-side.
“The set pieces will be genuine contests and with only ten players on the field there is a lot more space to attack.
“It will be a festival of rugby and a fun event. There will be a lot of intrigue about how players and teams adapt - but most of all it will be a great spectacle.”
As well as some locally-based players ,the tournament could draw some departed names including Berrick Barnes and Daniel Heenan as well as Toulon’s army of Australian and New Zealand players.
The Tens runs on the weekend of February 11 and 12, with tickets going on sale on August 11 at ticketek.com.au/brisbanetens.
Brisbane 10s at a glance
Twenty-eight matches played over two days
Broadcast live across Australia, New Zealand, UK, Japan, Africa, France and other major international markets
The rules of the Brisbane Global Tens are based on World Rugby’s official rugby tens rules
Ten players per team on field, with unlimited interchanges
Ten minute halves, five minute half-time
Knockout matches drawn after regulation are continued into extra time, in multiple five-minute periods
All conversion attempts must be drop-kicked and taken 40 seconds after a try
Five player scrums
Scoring team kicks off
Yellow cards net a three-minute suspension
