Western Force 2026 fixtures: WA club to only fly out of Perth three times in new Super Rugby Pacific season

After racking up more than 50,000km worth of air miles over just 14 weeks this season, Western Force coach Simon Cron has hailed his side’s 2026 Super Rugby Pacific schedule as a positive shift.

The Force have unveiled their fixtures for the 2026 campaign, and it comes with a 40 per cent reduction in travel for the league’s most-travelled team.

Having zig-zagged across the country this year, the Force will fly out of Perth just three times all season, with their seven away games coming in three blocks.

After opening the season with two home games, the Force will undertake a three-week road spell in New Zealand, facing Moana Pasifika, Highlanders and Hurricanes.

After a week six bye and home clash against the Chiefs, the Force will then play back-to-back away games against Queensland Reds and Fijian Drua.

After spending round 10 back at home against the Crusaders, the Force get another bye the week later, before taking on the Brumbies and Waratahs in consecutive away games and then rounding out the season with a trio of home matches.

After watching his battered and bruised team travel 18640km more than any other side and cross over 34 time zones (14 more than any other team) last season, Cron said the blocked nature of the schedule was immensely positive.

“Smart people have sat in a room, looked at it and worked out a better way of doing it, and it cuts down our travel by 40 to 45 per cent,” he said.

“We’re still the highest travel team, but it’s not travel suicide, which is the hardest way to put it last year.”

The Force only had one block of consecutive home games last season, and while those games came either side of a bye, Cron said the zig-zag nature of the schedule disrupted their ability to train players hard.

Complicating matters last year was the elevated travel schedule coupled with an injury list which only expanded as the season reached its latter stages.

“What I really learned last year is how much that compromised our training week and our ability to, more importantly, train players with high intensity,” he said.

“That’s what we were really battling to do, and we would really just massage them from Saturday to Saturday, tracking them ready for Saturday and it’s very recovery-based, because we had to.

“Our S&C (strength and conditioning) department have already sat down and talked about what are our disruptive weeks and what are our non disruptive weeks; there’s a lot more green weeks where we can actually fully train and push guys through.

“There still disruptive weeks — that’s fine, that’s part of where we live and what we do, but it’s not near what it was this year.”

Cron said it would also alleviate the mental burden on players and coaches.

“I had staff and players this year come to me at the end of the season about the fact that they were never home,” he said.

“We will lose staff off the back of the fact that they didn’t get to see their partners and players were always on the plane.”

Western Force 2026 Super Rugby Pacific fixtures

Round 1 — Western Force vs ACT Brumbies, Saturday 14 February, 4:35pm WST – HBF Park, Perth Round 2 – Western Force vs Blues – Saturday 21 February, 4:35pm WST – HIF Health Insurance Oval, Arena Joondalup Round 3 – Moana Pasifika vs Western Force, Friday 27 February, 2:05pm WST – TBC Round 4 – Highlanders vs Western Force, Saturday 7 March, 11:35am WST – Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin Round 5 – Hurricanes vs Western Force, Friday 13 March, 2:05pm WST – TBC Round 6 – BYE Round 7 – Western Force vs Chiefs, Saturday 28 March, 4:35pm WST – HBF Park, Perth Round 8 – Queensland Reds vs Western Force, Saturday 4 April, 4:35pm WST – Suncorp Stadium, Perth Round 9 – Fijian Drua vs Western Force, Saturday 11 April, 12:35pm WST – TBC, Fiji Round 10 – Western Force vs Crusaders, Saturday 18 April, 7:55pm WST – HBF Park, Perth Round 11 – BYE Round 12 – NSW Waratahs vs Western Force, Friday 1 May, 5:35pm WST – Allianz Stadium, Sydney Round 13 – ACT Brumbies vs Western Force, Saturday 9 May, 5:35pm WST – GIO Stadium, Canberra Round 14 – Western Force vs Queensland Reds, Saturday 16 May, 5:35pm WST – HBF Park, Perth Round 15 – Western Force vs Fijian Drua, Saturday 23 May, 5:35pm WST – HBF Park, Perth Round 16 – Western Force vs NSW Waratahs, Saturday 30 May, 5:35pm WST – HBF Park, Perth