2025 Crusaders vs Queensland Reds - Qtr #1

Super Rugby Pacific Finals Begin: Full Preview & Predictions Inside

Super Rugby Pacific Finals Begin: Full Preview & Predictions Inside

The 2025 Super Rugby Pacific finals begin! Get match previews, predictions and streaming info, as six teams battle in the restructured playoffs.

Jun 5, 2025 by Philip Bendon
Super Rugby Pacific Finals Begin: Full Preview & Predictions Inside

It’s officially knockout time in the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific season. 

After months of heart-stopping rugby action, six teams are left standing in the three-week race to this year’s league title, and the reformatted playoffs are bound to create some chaotic moments.

Though there are three matches on the slate in the qualifying round, four clubs will advance to next weekend’s semifinals; the highest-ranked loser moves on, along with the three winners. 

Depending on the results, that could mean that shakeups could be present throughout the weekend, and you’ll want to be glued to your screens to not miss a thing. 

Here’s a look at everything you need to know ahead of the Super Rugby Pacific finals — including predictions for every match — with this weekend’s qualifying round fixtures being streamed in the United States and Canada, live and exclusively on FloRugby: 

No. 5 Queensland Reds At No. 2 Crusaders 

Regular Season: Crusaders 43-19 (Round 4) 

Crusaders Season Recap

It’s just like old times in Christchurch, as the Crusaders are back to hosting playoff matches and firmly in the hunt for yet another Super Rugby Pacific title. 

On the hot seat entering the 2025 campaign after the competition’s most successful team in history missed the playoffs in his first season in charge last year, Crusaders boss Rob Penney has engineered a successful recovery in his sophomore season, getting a big win against the Brumbies last weekend in Canberra to lock in the No. 2 seed. 

The 14-time champions arguably haven’t had an outright superstar (no player on the team was named to the Super Rugby Pacific Team of the Year earlier this week), but with plenty of experienced All Blacks stalwarts in the squad, the Crusaders are a team that knows how to win — and win convincingly. 

Queensland Reds Season Recap

Is this the year the Queensland Reds finally get over the hump and make it to the semifinal rounds for the first time (not counting the COVID-era regional competitions) since winning the Super Rugby Pacific title in 2011? 

It could be in the cards, even after being dealt a tough first-round draw against the Crusaders. 

A blistering start that saw the Reds win five of their first six matches did fade slightly as the season went along, though they did enough to make the finals for the fourth straight season.

it was difference-makers, such as Wallabies captain Harry Wilson and electric winger Lachie Anderson (who scored four times in the first half in the Reds’ rout over the Fijian Drua last week), doing enough to help get them over the line. 

The Crusaders have never lost a playoff match at home, however, so the Reds will need to have a magical performance on the road this weekend to pull off the shocker. 

Prediction

Big moments are nothing new to the Crusaders, who are starting 10 All Blacks in their XV, including the electrifying Will Jordan, who is back from a knee injury after missing the past three weeks. 

When at their strongest, the Crusaders are nearly unstoppable, and the points could come in bunches for the hosts even as the Reds have some firepower of their own. 

The Crusaders’ outstanding home playoff winning streak continues. The pick: Crusaders 

No. 6 Blues At No. 1 Chiefs 

Regular Season: Chiefs 25-14 (Round 1), Chiefs 32-31 (Round 5) 

Blues Season Recap

We get to be treated to a 2024 Super Rugby Pacific final rematch in the playoffs, although it’s likely coming a lot earlier than many expected before the season. 

The Blues come into the finals as the defending league champions but definitely not holding champion-level momentum. 

The Aucklanders only just snuck into the playoff field after starting the season losing five of their first six games, turning their form around late in the season and sealing their finals trip last week with a decisive must-win victory over the New South Wales Waratahs. 

Defending has been the key behind the Blues being able to right the ship, as only their qualifying final opponent has given up fewer points per game (23.6) this season, and after narrowly missing out on an upset of the Chiefs in Round 5, the Blues will look to come in prepared and ready to wipe the slate clean while pushing toward a repeat title. 

Chiefs Season Recap

Wearing the scars from their final loss to the Blues last season, the Chiefs have barnstormed their way to being the competition’s best team this time around and can exorcise their past demons once and for all by eliminating the Blues this weekend in Hamilton. 

Having already taken down the Blues, both home and away, along with every other finals team (minus the Hurricanes) at least once, the Chiefs have earned the right to be confident with 11 wins racked up en route to their first time topping the Super Rugby Pacific regular-season table since 2013. 

Fly-half Damian McKenzie is the competition’s best playmaker, leading a unit that scored the most tries (75) in the league in the regular season, and plenty of support around him means that the Chiefs can blow teams away with devastating force, chalking them down as the favorite to snatch their first title in 12 years.

Prediction

The Blues definitely have shown flashes over the past month of the championship-level play that rocketed them to a title last season, and while they nearly toppled the Chiefs at the FMG Stadium Waikato in the regular season, don’t be surprised if a statement victory from the ladder leaders is in the cards — especially considering the heartbreak they suffered against this same Blues team last year. The pick: Chiefs 

No. 4 Hurricanes At No. 3 Brumbies

Regular Season: Hurricanes 35-29 (Round 11) 

Hurricanes Season Recap

Are the Hurricanes the best team in Super Rugby Pacific that hardly anyone is talking about? 

Sure, the ‘Canes have dipped a bit standings-wise as last season’s table-toppers weren’t able to secure a home finals match, but that was more so due to a bad first half of the season as they only won three of their first eight fixtures. 

Over the past two months specifically, however, the Hurricanes have been the competition’s hottest team and a team no one wants to play. 

Unbeaten in their past six matches — including five straight wins in a stretch that included victories over the Chiefs, Brumbies and Reds — with an average of 37.8 points per game scored in that winning streak, the Hurricanes snapped a eight-year stretch of losses in Canberra in Round 11 and now can make it 2 for 2 on wins in the Australian capital on the biggest stage of them all this weekend. 

A 64-point haul against Moana Pasifika in their regular-season finale was a good sign that the Hurricanes have it in them to pull off that feat.

Brumbies Season Recap

Once again the cream of the crop of Australia’s Super Rugby Pacific sides, the Brumbies are Australia’s best chance to end its championship drought in the competition that has now extended past a decade (the New South Wales Waratahs were the last to do it in 2014). 

Missing out on the top 2 after a defeat last weekend to the Crusaders did sting, leaving them with a tricky fixture with a team they’ve already lost to at home in the Hurricanes, but the Brumbies have made the semifinals for four straight (non-regionalized) seasons for a reason. 

The burning question now is if they have the juice to go even further; captain Allan Alaalatoa, the competition’s best prop who sat out Round 16 due to a calf strain, returns at just the right time to bring some muscle to what should be a physical showdown against the Hurricanes.

And, only three names on the injury list means coach Stephen Larkham’s team should be pulling out all the stops to try and make the semifinals yet again.

Prediction

In two of the past three editions of the Super Rugby Pacific finals, the Brumbies have been the team to end the Hurricanes’ season. Those roles may be reversed this weekend, though.

Hurricanes scrum-half Cam Roigard, who has stormed back to be the competition’s top No. 9 after an injury-shortened 2024 season, will be crucial to his team’s second victory of the season in Canberra as the ‘Canes stamp themselves down as the finals’ dark horse. The pick: Hurricanes

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