Two years ago, as the Warriors flew up the table in their own sold-out NRL season, Super Rugby Pacific looked mediocre by comparison.
You could watch an NRL game and see a product that pushed big and skilful athletes to their limit – every single one of the 34 players finishing the game with bursting lungs and sore bodies.
And then when you turned to Super Rugby Pacific, you’d see scrum resets, TMO (television match official) head-scratchers and far too many score blowouts.
Our best players’ engines weren’t being pushed.
So Super Rugby Pacific organisers flicked as many switches as they could.
The speeding-up of the game in 2025 was a masterstroke.
Referees were compelled to call tries – rather than wait for 20 TMO angles looking for the ball down among a clash of bodies.
They were also compelled to tell halfbacks to get the ball out of the ruck, and to tell props to get up off the ground or get off the field when they were late to a scrum.
The stricter they were on that, the better the rugby got.
The opening weekend featured the Western Force scoring a length-of-the-field winner with time up to beat Moana Pasifika 45-44.
Who would have thought we’d have that sort of game two years ago, and who would’ve thought it would have such a bearing on the season ahead?
Moana, led by Ardie Savea, were exceptional – beating every New Zealand team bar the Chiefs, and giving them a heck of a second-half scare.
That they didn’t make the playoffs was a shame, but the six-team playoffs system was far better than the eight-team farce it replaced.
Perhaps in 2026, the lucky loser should drop two places rather than one place down the seedings for the semifinal (meaning the Chiefs would have played an away semi in Canberra).
But the contests the playoffs served up were tough games to pick a winner – and the thrilling loss to the Blues ultimately cost the Chiefs.
Other factors that helped the 2025 Super show include, but are not limited to:
– the demise of the blatant rest and rotation policies for key All Blacks
– the demise of the Melbourne Rebels, which strengthened the depth of the four remaining Aussie teams
– the introduction of Fantasy Super Rugby
– the Fijian Drua’s creation of a humidity-fuelled fortress
– the demise of 7.30pm New Zealand kickoffs, the bane of families with young children. There’s an argument to be made that as winter drops, New Zealand Rugby could even consider 6pm kickoffs. TV news is not what it was.
As the Crusaders celebrate their Super Rugby Pacific title, administrators should be doing the same. Bring on 2026.
