Super Rugby Pacific: One Big Thing To Watch For In Every Round 4 Match
Super Rugby Pacific: One Big Thing To Watch For In Every Round 4 Match
Super Rugby Pacific Round 4 brings big storylines—Ardie Savea faces his old club, Chiefs battle in Fiji without McKenzie, and top surprises clash.
Ardie Savea will be facing his old club for the first time, the league leaders will try to pull off the stiff challenge of winning in Fiji, and two of the Super Rugby Pacific’s early surprises will be duking it out in a classic east coast vs. west coast derby.
All in a week’s work for one of the best club rugby leagues in the world.
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Super Rugby Pacific fans are bound to be treated to some more madness in Round 4 as the midseason stretch is now fully underway, and there’s only one place in North America to catch all of the action that’s about to transpire.
Here’s a look ahead 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 U.S. and Canada exclusively on FloRugby:
NOTE: The Highlanders are on a bye this week.
Brumbies at Blues
Brumbies’ Bottling Issues: After back-to-back rounds in which they’ve squandered winnable matches, the Brumbies aren’t quite in crisis mode yet, but there have been some alarming trends in their recent play. Australia’s most successful Super Rugby Pacific team ever hasn’t had a problem scoring yet this year, picking up six tries in all three rounds and leading the competition with 18 total, but they’ve had little to show for it as in Round 3’s case, the Chiefs were clinical and ruthless as they had multiple tries in which they had open breaks through the Brumbies’ leaky defence. Trying to beat the Blues at Eden Park is almost always a daunting task, but the Aussies will have some help by way of the reigning champions being forced to field a lineup without multiple stars. Stephen Perofeta and Dalton Papali’i are among those who won’t be suiting up for the Blues due to calf and head injuries, respectively, while Hoskins Sotutu will be suspended for the next three weeks after picking up a red card due to a dangerous tackle late in his team’s victory over the Hurricanes.
Chiefs at Fijian Drua
No McKenzie, No Worries?: Nothing much has gone wrong for the Chiefs through three Super Rugby Pacific rounds. They’ve gotten revenge over the Blues already in a 2024 final rematch and have erupted for 49 points in back-to-back fixtures over the Crusaders and Brumbies, looking every bit like the table-topping team that currently holds a four-point lead over second place in the standings going into Round 4. The only problem as last season’s runner-up goes for four wins in a row to start the 2025 campaign, however, is that the Chiefs have to pull off that feat without both its captain and its best player while they play an away match in Fiji, where the Drua are unbeatable when they’re on their day. Among those on the Chiefs’ injured list, captain Luke Jacobson is still out after breaking his nose in the Crusaders win, while fullback Damian McKenzie — Super Rugby Pacific’s current top scorer on 48 total points — will also be inactive for the trip to Melanesia as he deals with what the club is calling a short-term knee issue. Second-rower Tupou Vaa’i will once again be the Chiefs’ captain in Lautoka, whereas Emoni Narawa will make a grand homecoming to the place of his birth by being McKenzie’s replacement in the starting XV.
Hurricanes at Moana Pasifika
Savea To See Old Friends: As an iconic Hurricanes player who helped lead the club to its first (and so far only) Super Rugby Pacific title in 2016, you won’t find many of the team’s supporters who have a bad thing to say about Ardie Savea, who evolved into one of the best players in the world and an All Blacks leader while he was playing his club rugby in Wellington. That being said, the Hurricanes could use a win to bump themselves up the competition’s pecking order, and if it has to come at the expense of Savea’s new team, so be it. The 2023 World Rugby Player of the Year, who made the seismic and well-covered move to Moana this past offseason, will be facing the club he spent a decade starring with for the first time this weekend at the North Harbour Stadium, trying to get his new club out of last place and finally into the win column for 2025. Moana has been very entertaining with 16 tries and has benefitted massively from Savea’s quality and ability to be a leader of men, but a full 80-minute match hasn’t been strung together yet for the pride of the South Pacific islands. It would be poetic for Savea if that changed against a club he made so many great memories with.
Western Force at New South Wales Waratahs
New Waves On Each Coast?: The Western Force and New South Wales Waratahs finished 10th and 12th in last season’s Super Rugby Pacific table, respectively, each being one of just four teams to miss out on the playoffs entirely. Nowadays, the Force were a minute away last week from their first three-win start to a season in their history, while the Waratahs are unbeaten through two matches. Something’s in the water in the seaside cities of Perth and Sydney, clearly. The Force’s surge has been particularly surprising; rarely a major threat when they’ve had their Super Rugby Pacific stints over the years, they’ve looked excellent through three weeks as the gears appear to finally be turning under coach Simon Cron, with Carlo Tizzano (five tries this season, including two against the Queensland Reds last round) looking especially exceptional. The Tahs still won’t be without code-switching star Joseph-Aukuso Sua’ali’i this week as he nurses a toe injury, but that didn’t slow them down last round against the Fijian Drua as they had a second-straight victory in the dying embers of the match, winning it with a go-ahead penalty try in the 77th minute.
Queensland Reds at Crusaders
The Daugunu Effect: Don’t look now, but three weeks after one of the craziest, high-profile transfer-laden Super Rugby Pacific off-seasons that we’ve seen in a while, the best example of a move from the off-season might be one that kind of flew under the radar. Fiji-born wing/centre Filipo Daugunu, a Wallabies international who rejoined the Reds on a one-year deal following a season-long stint with the now-defunct Melbourne Rebels this past season, has been awesome since making his return to the club, scoring tries in each of the Reds’ first two games of the season as they sit second in the table despite playing in one fewer match thus far than three other teams. His second try of the year last round against the Western Force was especially important, being a last-gasp score in the 80th-minute that got Queensland a gritty 28-24 victory despite being down 14-0 barely 20 minutes into the match. Daugunu will show off some versatility as he’ll shift from the wing to outside centre this weekend in Christchurch to replace the injured Josh Flook (who had a brace against the Force), hoping to help the Reds secure a third-straight win in what will also double as his first rugby match in his 30s (Daugunu’s birthday was Tuesday).
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