Super Rugby Playoff Race Heats Up With Tight Standings And Key Matchups
Super Rugby Playoff Race Heats Up With Tight Standings And Key Matchups
Super Rugby Pacific enters a wild second half, as top teams jostle for playoff spots. Here’s what to watch in each match, streaming live on FloRugby.
There’s some rustling in the Super Rugby Pacific table — and it’s coming at just the right time.
The second half of one of the most fiercely competitive club rugby competitions in the world is in full force, and with just five points separating 10th place from the six spots in the standings that will make the fast-approaching playoffs, there’s still plenty left to play for.
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Meanwhile, there’s been a shakeup at the top of the ladder since the beginning of Round 9, as well, as the pendulum of title favorites keeps seesawing.
Here’s a look at one big thing 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 Queensland Reds are on a bye this week.
Blues At Crusaders
Crusaders Back In Driver’s Seat
The mission for the Crusaders last week was simple: take care of business and let whatever happens elsewhere happen. Mission accomplished.
Super Rugby Pacific’s most successful club of all time took the top spot in the standings after Round 9, thanks to the combination of its own 31-24 win in Wellington over the Hurricanes and the New South Wales Waratahs’ epic victory over the title-hunting Chiefs, though a furious late rally from the hosts in the final quarter after they took advantage of the Crusaders being two men down nearly spoiled the party.
Ioane Moananu’s hat trick was enough to get the 14-time champions over the line in the end, though, and the march to potential title No. 15 is going swimmingly entering the second half of the season.
And speaking of former titlists, the defending champion Blues have won two matches on the bounce to put themselves four points back of the playoffs following a disastrous run of five losses in six, putting them back into the hunt for the top 6 after a nightmare start to the season.
Beating the Crusaders away from home would give a massive momentum boost to Vern Cotter’s squad, but if it’s anything like their Eden Park fixture from Round 6 (a 42-19 Crusaders win), the Blues are in trouble.
New South Wales Waratahs At Fijian Drua
Preventing The Hangover
The New South Wales Waratahs were in need of a jolt after giving up a combined 102 points consecutive beatdowns entering Round 9, and they got one by picking up one of the biggest upsets of the season to date by way of a 21-14 stunner over the then-leading Chiefs in Sydney.
Even without captain Jake Gordon, being at the wrong end of some controversial refereeing decisions late in the first half and featuring a defense that looked all but lost after stinkers in New Zealand against the Hurricanes and Moana Pasifika, the Tahs — who haven’t lost yet this year at Allianz Stadium — looked like world-beaters against a squad many are tipping to be the favorite to lift the title this season, with star man Joseph-Aukuso Sua’ali’i, Triston Reilly and Teddy Wilson all touching down for tries in one of the club’s best wins in their history.
There’s no time for the Tahs to get complacent, however, even as the Fijian Drua sputtered to a fourth straight loss last week; Fiji is a difficult place to get a win for a reason, and all it takes for the Drua to erupt are some quick scores earned by way of their trademark high-risk, high-reward style of play.
Brumbies At Moana Pasifika
Brumbies Keeping Consistent
Long the class of Australia in Super Rugby Pacific, the Brumbies have won four out of their past five matches and are in strong form heading into their Easter weekend showdown with the wishy-washy Moana Pasifika, which saw its two-match win streak snapped at the hand of the Blues last weekend as it dipped to 10th place.
Undeterred by a 14-0 first-half hole in Brisbane against the Queensland Reds last weekend, the Brumbies ended up winning their fourth straight against the Reds without much fuss in a 39-26 triumph, as Billy Pollard scored twice, and the Brumbies scored all of their points in the span of less than an hour of match time.
Injuries have forced Stephen Larkham to adjust his forward pack for his team’s trip to Pukekohe — which includes Rhys van Nek getting the start at prop for the first time this season — but as one of Super Rugby Pacific’s most in-form teams at the moment, the Brumbies will be taking on the away trip with a high amount of confidence.
Being without Ardie Savea, the lifeblood of the team who is putting up a vintage Player of the Year-caliber season in his first year at his new club, will hurt Moana Pasifika’s chances. The All Blacks legend is resting, but brother Julian Savea is poised to play his first game of the year after getting back from a long-term knee injury.
Highlanders At Chiefs
Highlanders Out Of Danger?
In a must-win clash for both teams last weekend in Dunedin (in which each side was coming into the fixture on a multi-round losing run), the Highlanders prevailed over the Fijian Drua by a 43-20 margin under the roof at the Forsyth Barr Stadium to snap a four-game losing streak with authority, picking up the bonus point to put them back within three points of the top six places in the standings.
Shrewd offseason pickup and Tonga international Taniela Filimone, who was a try-scoring machine in America last season while playing in Major League Rugby, was the star of the show, as he scored a pair of tries within 15 minutes of his Super Rugby Pacific debut.
The hosts ran away with it in a much-needed performance.
A trip to Hamilton to face a Chiefs squad looking for an immediate bounce-back win after losing its first-place position in the league table will be a much tougher task, but perhaps getting the monkey off of their backs last week against the Drua was what the Highlanders — who’ll only have one change in their starting XV from last weekend — needed to position themselves for a strong second half of the season.
Hurricanes At Western Force
Playoffs in Perth?
Longtime Western Force supporters have deserved a season like the one the club is having right now.
Axed from Super Rugby in 2017 after an 11-year stint that was littered with poor performances and frequent finishes in the league basement, five years of limbo for the Force led to a triumphant return to the revamped first season of the Super Rugby Pacific era in 2022, after they participated in the pandemic-caused regionalized competitions in 2021 (Super Rugby AU and Super Rugby Trans-Tasman).
And now, as the Force sit in the playoff places following the competition’s first round of byes, things are starting to get real for a club that’s needed something to cheer about.
Simon Cron’s men were off this past weekend but still didn’t lose their spot in the top 6 thanks to two wins in their last three and a high-flying attack that features Super Rugby Pacific’s top try-scorer at the halfway point, Carlo Tizzano (11).
There are no guarantees in a league as competitive as Super Rugby Pacific, but with three points of leeway in the table at the moment between the Force and the seventh-place Highlanders for the final playoff spot, the Force can be in line for a historic campaign, if all goes to plan over the final few weeks of the regular season.
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