Super Rugby Pacific Culture Round: Key Storylines & Must-Watch Matches
Super Rugby Pacific Culture Round: Key Storylines & Must-Watch Matches
Super Rugby Pacific’s Culture Round brings top matchups & key storylines. Get insights on every game, from the Chiefs' shakeup to the Blues' struggle.
It’s Culture Round time in the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific season, and amid the celebrations that will take place league-wide highlighting the diversity and traditions that help make rugby the special game that it is, we do have some major matches going on in the meantime, too.
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The first two rounds of play this year in one of the world’s most competitive and strongest rugby union competitions have lived up to the billing, and as the contenders and pretenders continue to be sorted, 10 teams will be hoping to exit the Culture Round with a burst of momentum and a surge up the table.
Here’s a look at one big thing that you need to know about every Super Rugby Pacific match this weekend, with all matches being streamed live in the United States and Canada exclusively on FloRugby:
NOTE: The Crusaders are on a bye this week.
Highlanders At Moana Pasifika
Prepare For A Rock Fight
No matter what goes down at the North Harbour Stadium this weekend, just know that the Highlanders and Moana Pasifika both have proven themselves to have a ton of heart — and neither can truly be counted out of a match until the after final siren wails.
The Highlanders, who almost pulled out a narrow win at the death against the New South Wales Waratahs in Round 1, pulled off probably the most unlikely victory of Round 2, as despite being down to 13 men due to injuries and a red card for the final quarter of their match against the champion Blues, they held firm and held on for a wild and emotional 29-21 victory. The visitors just could not find a breakthrough, despite the late two-man advantage.
Elsewhere, Moana doesn’t have a win yet, but renewed energy within the club under headline offseason transfer, All Blacks legend and team captain Ardie Savea clearly is there.
Only the Western Force and Brumbies have more tries through two rounds than Moana’s 11, four of which have been scored by Tonga international Kyren Taumoefolau, as he’s now picked up braces in consecutive weeks.
Sneakily holding an argument for the top game of the weekend, it’ll also be a highly emotional one for Moana and their Pacific Islander identity as part of the Culture Round.
Fijian Drua At New South Wales Waratahs
Opportunity Beckons
What’s going to happen first — the Fijian Drua finally winning a match away from home, or heralded code-switching star Joseph-Aukuso Sua’ali’i scoring his first try for the Waratahs?
We may get closer to an answer to that question in Sydney this weekend as the Tahs return from a Round 2 bye and the Drua try to come back strongly following a disappointing performance last weekend in Napier against the Hurricanes, with second-half miscues costing Fiji’s Super Rugby squad dearly after it held a halftime lead.
The Drua did not win a match outside of Fiji last season, and against a well-rested Tahs group that is loaded to the gills with attacking firepower, they’re going to need to match them tit-for-tat.
They do have a lifeline in the form of a major omission from the Tahs’ squad, however; Sua’ali’i will not suit up for the hosts in Round 3 as he heals up from a toe injury, which will hurt, but by no means ruin, the Tahs’ chances as first-year coach Dan McKellar has opted to shift Wallabies stalwart Andrew Kellaway into the fullback role from the left wing with Darby Lancaster taking up the vacant slot left behind in the starting XV.
Brumbies At Chiefs
Shakeup In The Chiefs’ Camp
The Chiefs’ narrow miss of last season’s Super Rugby title clearly has motivated them to return to play with a killer instinct. But will it last, especially now that they know that their coach is leaving at the end of the season?
Back-to-back victories to start the 2025 campaign over the Blues and Crusaders each have featured sizzling second-half bursts, with All Blacks fly-half Damian McKenzie (who leads all of Super Rugby Pacific with 34 points) unsurprisingly being the string-puller, while a deep bench also has helped push the Chiefs forward after they’ve been hit with injuries.
Captain Luke Jacobson, who broke his nose in the Chiefs’ 49-24 victory over the Crusaders this past weekend, will be among the Chiefs who’ll be inactive for their fixture against the Brumbies in Round 3, but a rigid defense that has only allowed a joint league-low five tries — the same amount as the Queensland Reds and New South Wales Waratahs, who both have only played one match — should help in the Chiefs’ hopes to make it three wins on the bounce.
Big news related to the Chiefs officially dropped this week, however, as New Zealand Rugby confirmed that coach Clayton McMillan will be leaving at the end of the season to take the job at United Rugby Championship outfit Munster in Ireland, which could play an impact in how the Hamilton-based club will compete for the rest of the season now that they know they only have a limited amount of time remaining with a man who has been instrumental in bringing the Chiefs to back-to-back Super Rugby Pacific finals.
Blues At Hurricanes
From First To Worst
The start of the Blues’ bid for back-to-back Super Rugby Pacific titles has been nothing short of disastrous as through two rounds of the 2025 season, and the Auckland-based side is the only club in the competition to have failed to score a point, as it is anchored to bottom in the table entering Round 3.
A toothless second half in which they didn’t score, killed the Blues in an opening-weekend rematch of the 2024 final against the Chiefs.
Last weekend, in what should’ve been a get-right game against the Highlanders, last year’s champions were unable to score, despite the fact that the hosts were down to 13 men for the final 20 minutes due to injuries in their front row and a red card from Daniel Leinert-Brown.
A defeat in Wellington to the Hurricanes this weekend may mean it’s time to enter panic mode in the Blues’ camp, and it won’t be easy for them to bounce back, considering that ever-improving All Blacks scrum-half Cam Roigard has been sensational to start the season for the Hurricanes, leading his team to a win over the Fijian Drua in Round 2 after setting up three tries and scoring another.
Queensland Reds At Western Force
A New Era For The Force?
Not since 2011 had the Western Force won in Canberra before last weekend, but the surprising second-place team in the Super Rugby Pacific standings through two rounds did just that by stunning Australia’s most accomplished Super Rugby team ever in a 45-42 derby barnburner in Round 2.
It’s the first time in club history that the Force have won their first two games in succession to start a Super Rugby season, and while their ability to close against the Brumbies could’ve been better as they let the hosts get back into the match after holding a 21-0 first-half lead and briefly played with 13 men in the second half, the Force won’t be complaining with being just a point off of first place in the table.
A convincing win back in Perth this weekend against the Reds would be a major sign that the Force may be for real — especially considering that their two wins were by a combined four points — but that’s easier said than done, particularly after the Wallabies-heavy Reds dropped 56 points and had eight different try scorers in their big season-opening victory last weekend against Moana Pasifika.
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