Fortinet, the US cybersecurity solutions provider, has secured title sponsorship rights to a selection of matches in the Rugby Championship, the southern hemisphere rugby union national teams competition, in a deal with New Zealand Rugby.
New Zealand will host two matches during the competition – which also features Argentina, South Africa and Australia – with South Africa visiting in October for two fixtures, while the scheduled 'home' game against Australia has been moved to Perth in Western Australia for logistical reasons linked to the coronavirus pandemic.
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Fortinet will have title sponsorship rights to all three games.
Argentina were also meant to be visiting New Zealand in September for two matches in Wellington, but because of the rescheduling of this month's Bledisloe Cup Series between New Zealand and Australia, which forms part of the Rugby Championship, those games will also take place in Australia.
New Zealand's All Blacks have won the competition 17 times, more than any nation.
The governing bodies in all of the participating countries are free to agree their own title sponsorship deals for home games in the competition, and agreements are already in place with e-commerce platform eToro in Australia and Telecom Personal in Argentina.
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By GlobalDataMark Robinson, NZR’s chief executive, said: "Fortinet are an exciting new partner and we’re thrilled to have them on board for what’s going to be a thrilling tournament. It’s the support of sponsors like Fortinet who allow our competitions to continue to thrive.”
Jon McGettigan, Fortinet’s regional director for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, added: “Fortinet is proud to partner with New Zealand Rugby as a 2021 Rugby Championship sponsor… We look forward to being a key sponsor of the Championship.”
The deal marks Fortinet’s first major foray into rugby union sponsorship, having previously been most active in golf.
The 2021 Rugby Championship, featuring 12 matches over seven rounds, starts on 7 August and ends on 2 October.
Because of Covid-19, the 2020 edition took place entirely in Australia and did not feature South Africa.
For this year, the New Zealand-Argentina games have been shifted to Australia due to coronavirus-related restrictions around the Trans-Tasman bubble.
Robinson said: “It’s disappointing not to be able to host Argentina, but the eight-week pause to the trans-Tasman travel bubble meant it just wasn’t possible to get the team into the country."
The two games in the Bledisloe Cup will take place in Auckland on 7 and 14 August, with the latter fixture having been rescheduled from 28 August and relocated from Wellington.
