Be warned: Super Rugby Pacific is proper in 2025
Super Rugby Pacific 2025 is a great tournament. It is very different to the rugby played up north in the Top 14, Vodacom United Rugby Championship and English Premiership, but that does not mean it does not make for great viewing.
There was a notable drop in Super Rugby when the South African teams left to go north. Australia’s Super Rugby teams were at their lowest in the history of the competition and New Zealand’s players seemed to be in some kind of hibernated state, having endured two years in which day to day life was isolated and behind locked borders.
This season has been so different.
Australia’s teams have been stronger and having one less Australian team has aided the depth in the squad of the remaining four. It is still an argument that if Australia only entered three teams, they’d have the best chance of being successful, but the four have been competitive and going into the last round the Brumbies and Reds have consistently been in the league’s top four all season.
The Force, at home in Perth, have proved tough and the Waratahs have restored the fight to any match when playing in Sydney. Their travels aren’t quite as impressive.
The Chiefs of the New Zealand teams have impressed me the most. They are a well coached squad and they play with the greatest balance. They have not been as imposing on the road but at home they are formidable. A Bordeaux v Chiefs match, played on neutral ground, would be a ripper. Equally, Leinster v the Crusaders and the Stormers v the Hurricanes and Bulls v the Blues. The Brumbies and Reds against the Sharks and Munster … it also has appeal.
Some of those match-ups may come to fruition in the first ever World Club Championship, scheduled for 2028, when 16 teams will play for the right of official best club team in the world.
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This competition is long overdue and I can’t wait for it to happen.
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The competition, confirmed a week ago, will feature the top seven teams from 2027 Super Rugby Pacific, the 2027 quarter-finalists of the Investec Champions Cup and the 2027 winner of Japan’s League One title.
Congratulations to Sevu Reece on becoming Super Rugby’s all-time leading try-scorer! pic.twitter.com/Sa34WaaevV
— SA Rugby magazine (@SARugbymag) May 28, 2025
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The Chiefs, Crusaders and Brumbies have been the most consistent teams in the 2025 season, while Ardi Savea has been an inspiration in his first season for Moana Pasifika
The rugby have been enthralling. The speed of the games, the skill level and the desire of teams to use the very good playing conditions to want to keep the ball in hand.
Super Rugby is very different to Test rugby, which does not mean it can’t be applauded for an identity as such. I liken it a lot to T20 cricket in all of its appeal, whereas five-day Test cricket is more of an examination, as is Test rugby. It is here that the nature of the competitions up north lend themselves to the kind of rugby we see at Test level.
I do feel there is something brewing with the Kiwis and it could be the year of the All Blacks comeback to challenge for the World No 1 ranking. Playing the world champion Springboks in New Zealand in back-to-back Tests is less daunting than a year ago when they played the Boks at Ellis Park in Johannesburg and at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town. The lost the first Test 31-27 after leading 27-17 going into the final quarter and they lost 18-12 in Cape Town, but in both Test matches they had opportunities to win them.
There were also massive improvements on their end of year tour and they beat England and Ireland and lost by a single point to France.
They are a team on the rise and so are the Wallabies, who were so much better on their 2024 November tour than they were a year earlier at the World Cup. The Wallabies also stunned England at the Allianz in Twickenham and were within three points of upsetting Ireland in Dublin.
Savea has been Siya Kolisi-like with his performances and with his off-field presence, while veteran Crusaders and All Blacks winger Sevu Reece broke the record for the most tries in Super Rugby history.
Beauden Barrett, playing mostly at flyhalf for the Blues, also went past Morne Steyn’s Super Rugby points tally and is within touching distance of Dan Carter’s Super Rugby record for the most points in the history of the competition.
This weekend’s Super Rugby final rounds will determine the top six, with the top two afforded a bye into the semi-finals and teams three to six battling for the right to play in the semi-finals.
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