Top 5 Super Rugby Pacific Transfers To Watch In The 2025 Season
Top 5 Super Rugby Pacific Transfers To Watch In The 2025 Season
The top Super Rugby Pacific offseason transfers for 2025: Savea, Barrett, Sua’ali’i, O’Connor and Leota. See how these moves shape the season ahead!
The biggest club rugby competition in the South Pacific is nearing its grand return.
It’s safe to say there have been a few changes around the place over the past few months.
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Superstars switching clubs and exciting youth players switching codes are among the highlight transfers of the Super Rugby Pacific offseason, and FloRugby — which will broadcast Super Rugby live and exclusively in the United States — is here to prep you with content ahead of the 2025 campaign’s kickoff next month.
Here’s a look at five of the biggest transfers that rocked the offseason ahead of the fast-approaching start of the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific season:
Ardie Savea, Moana Pasifika
An Earth-shattering move when it was announced last July, Moana Pasifika — an all-Pacific Islander squad that began play in Super Rugby in 2022 — now has one of the best players in the world in the prime of his career.
The 2023 World Rugby Player of the Year, New Zealand captain and former Hurricanes standout has joined Moana (where he’ll play with brother Julian) on a three-year deal, with the 31-year-old back-rower returning to Super Rugby in a stunning twist after a yearlong sabbatical playing in Japan.
Moana has never finished higher than 11th in the Super Rugby table, but Savea (of Samoan heritage) frequently has stated that his move to fellow All Black legend Tana Umaga’s squad isn’t about silverware, telling The Morning Shift podcast shortly after the transfer was announced that “I don’t follow titles, I follow courage.”
Savea’s move there alone now makes Moana Pasifika one of Super Rugby’s most intriguing teams going into the 2025 campaign, with his presence not only bringing a quality to the club that it’s never seen before, but also a level of leadership and man-motivation that could help bring the often basement-dwelling team to new heights.
Beauden Barrett, Blues
The Blues originally tried to bring back Barrett (already signed to the club for 2025 after a season played in Japan) for their playoff run last season, but World Rugby regulations denied the chance for the fly-half to return just in time for the knockout rounds. But, the Blues eventually won the 2024 Super Rugby title anyway.
Now officially back in Auckland, one of the greatest All Blacks of all time will be looking to assist in spearheading the Blues to what could be back-to-back titles, which would be the club’s first time doing so since 1996-1997.
The 33-year-old — who also played for the Blues in 2020 and from 2022-2023 with another sabbatical in 2021 — still should have plenty left in the tank, as he’ll be looking to add a second Super Rugby title to his lengthy and ever-growing list of career accolades, having also won one as a member of the Hurricanes in 2016 in which he put up a man-of-the-match performance in the final.
Barrett has nine tries in 30 career appearances with the Blues, who would’ve already carried a stacked squad into 2025, even if they didn’t retain the former two-time World Rugby Player of the Year. The Blues did get Barrett’s signature, however, making their side even scarier with kickoff just over a month away.
Joseph Sua’ali’i, New South Wales Waratahs
If you exclusively follow rugby union, the name Joseph Sua’ali’i hasn’t had much impact on your life before the past few months.
But if the hype is indeed real behind the 21-year-old Sua’ali’i, an electric wing rugby league prodigy who will give it a go in Super Rugby with the Tahs in 2025, he could be the driving force behind one of Super Rugby’s best Australian sides in quite some time.
In a high-profile (and controversial) move, it was announced in early 2023 that Sua’ali’i — who had starred in the National Rugby League with the Sydney Roosters since 2021, when he earned an exemption to play in the NRL before his 18th birthday — had signed with Rugby Australia to switch to union and play for the Tahs beginning in 2025 on a monster multi-million-dollar deal.
Already having played rugby league internationally with Samoa and with New South Wales in the annual State of Origin series against Queensland, Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt opted to give Sua’ali’i his international rugby union debut in the Autumn Nations Series mere weeks after he played his last game with the Roosters and before he played his first game with the Tahs, where he became one of the few Wallabies ever to earn their first cap before playing a game of Super Rugby.
Oh, and all he did in his Wallabies debut this past November was put up a man-of-the-match performance in Australia’s win over England at Twickenham, dazzling after a surprise start at outside center.
Can he replicate that form with a new-look, completely revamped Tahs squad that finished at the bottom of the Super Rugby table last year? Time will tell, but Sua’ali’i, regardless, is going to have plenty of eyes looking his way when the Tahs begin their season next month against the Highlanders.
James O’Connor, Crusaders
Things went sharply south for the Crusaders in 2024, as the Christchurch-based side — which won every proper Super Rugby championship from 2017-2023 and two pandemic-caused, regionalized titles in 2020 and 2021 — saw coach Scott Robertson leave his post to lead the All Blacks after 2023, and their form dropped drastically, shockingly finishing ninth in last year’s table and missing the playoffs entirely.
In dire need of some teeth in their attack without superstar fly-half Richie Mo’unga (who’s on a sabbatical in Japan), the Crusaders have opted to sign a No. 10 with plenty of veteran experience from across the Tasman Sea.
The 34-year-old O’Connor, who’s played 64 times for Australia and over 120 times with three different Aussie Super Rugby sides (Western Force, Melbourne Rebels and Queensland Reds), will now suit up for a New Zealand squad for the first time in his career as he’ll aim to help get the best out of what still should be one of the better back lines in the competition with the likes of Will Jordan and Sevu Reece still around.
Injuries have dinged JOC throughout his career, which started with promise when he debuted for the Wallabies as an 18-year-old, but when healthy and on his day, O’Connor undoubtedly is a great option to have — and he’ll provide the added bonus of being able to mentor up a younger Crusaders fly-half waiting in the wings.
Rob Leota, New South Wales Waratahs
The Melbourne Rebels’ captain last season, Leota spent eight years with the Rebels and made his Wallabies debut as a member of the club in 2021, but the 27-year-old backrower's continued presence and growing stature in the Australian national team has led him to join onto a Tahs team that’s not been shy this offseason in terms of wheeling and dealing to improve upon its last-place finish in Super Rugby last season.
Joining a forward pack that already includes fellow Wallabies Angus Bell, David Porecki and Langi Gleeson, Leota is among the multiple Australian national team players joining the fray in Sydney as new signings, being part of a list that also includes Andrew Kellaway and Darby Lancaster.
A versatile option in the pack who has suited up at No. 8, flanker and even lock on occasion, the Tahs have big aspirations after a deflating 2024 campaign, and bringing in players who have played in big-time moments like Leota help with building a winning culture.
Leota’s Wallabies debut came in Australia’s famous victory against South Africa, after all, so if the Tahs are hoping that he can make a difference right away, the signs are there.
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