This is because the final winner, New Zealand-based Scots international, Gavin Mutch, is ineligible for New Zealand team selection, and runner-up Mark Grainger, of Te Kūiti, is unable to spare the six weeks away from his King Country farm, due to drought ravaging the region.
Grainger’s father, Paul, said it was “a shame” his son couldn’t compete.
“He was really torn about what to do,” he said.
“He’s taken on the farm, and the season – it’s the worst I’ve ever seen in King Country – has just made it too hard.”
The family are no stranger to competition, with Paul winning the Golden Shears open in 1985 and managing the team to the UK in 2015-2016.
The team this year will be managed by shearing judge Neil Fagan, who has had several seasons shearing in the UK, including a senior win at Corwen.
It will open the tour with tests against Scotland at the Lochearnhead Shears on June 28 and England at the Great Yorkshire Show at Harrogate on July 9.
Read more shearing and woolhandling stories here.
They will then cross the English Channel to face France at the French Shears in Boussac on July 13, and return to the UK for a three-match series against Wales with tests at Cothi on July 19, the Royal Welsh Show on July 23 and the Corwen Shears on July 26.
New Zealand teams have shorn shearing tests in the UK almost annually for over 30 years, with reciprocal series against Wales in New Zealand now held each year.
At Te Kūiti, Jack Fagan and Wairarapa shearer David Buick completed a 3-0 home-series win over Welsh shearers Llyr Jones and Gethin Lewis, avenging a 2-1 defeat in Wales last July.
Home sheep and conditions have been a significant factor, with Wales having had just one test match win in New Zealand, scored by Jones and Lewis at Te Kūiti in 2024, while New Zealand last won a series in Wales in 2019, the first such win since 2011.
