Fans turn out for Super Rugby Pacific 2025. Photo: ActionPress
Analysis: It would be a tad unfair to say that the fourth round of Super Rugby Pacific started and ended with upsets, because the Crusaders were favourites heading into the eventual 43-19 win over the Reds.
But that doesn't change the fact that they also went in far below the Queenslanders on the ladder, plus had lost the last game between the two.
New Super Rugby Pacific CEO Jack Mesley had made a visit to New Zealand to get around and shake some hands and would have been pretty happy with what he saw overall.
"Every match matters this early in the season," Mesley said on Friday, foreshadowing the drama that was to come later that evening at Eden Park.
"This start has set us up well for the middle period to be super interesting," he added, alluding to the fact that under the old 12-team format, the competition would enter a bit of a lag period as teams took their byes and derby matches dried up.
"Clearly with any competition as you go on, you start losing fans as their teams lose finals hopes. With this new structure, it will keep things really interesting in the run home," said Mesley, who noted that teams had been far more proactive promoting themselves in traditional and social media, finally giving a bit of meaning to the 'fan-centric' buzzword that's been associated with rugby marketing lately.
"It's been really positive, the clubs are driving access and behind the scenes content, so I think that's a really good step in the right direction.
"We're getting a lot of good feedback from journalists in Australia about the access they're getting. Adding things like Fantasy give rugby fans more tools to play with, in a really competitive market."
Back over this side of the Tasman, Mesley's optimism is being backed up by hard facts.
Sky released a ratings report last week showing that there had been a 12 percent rise on the 2024 viewership through three rounds, including a very impressive 600,000 figure for last weekend's Hurricanes v Blues match.
That was over 100,000 more than the NRL's opening round in Las Vegas, and while NZ Rugby have always been reticent to publicly engage in a ratings rivalry with rugby league, Sydney-based Mesley was not in a position to brush it off.
The NRL and AFL have both now started their seasons and every prime time Super Rugby Pacific game now has significant competition for eyeballs and tickets in their biggest markets.
"We've always had it," said Mesley.
"But we've had some really positive momentum to deal with that competition - and that competition isn't going away. We know we have to have a really compelling proposition…to make it easier for people to get excited about the weekend's matches."
Drua and Moana get on the board while Blues get the blues
Rugby-wise, the Blues' fan base won't be feeling quite as fan-centric this week as their side continues to struggle out of first gear.
Their 21-20 loss to the Brumbies was unexpected, came at a great cost and has once again exposed some real short-comings in the second coming of their direct style.
Put simply, the Blues were more of a limp-wristed slap than the gut punch they were in 2024, and got exposed by a Brumbies side that simply adjusted quicker and ultimately took the victory.
Death, taxes and the Drua instantly becoming a much better team while playing at home.
It was not like the Chiefs would not have known that, but there was not much they could do about it or the torrential downpour that engulfed them when the game at Churchill Park kicked off.
It certainly did not help that the Drua managed to completely reverse the trend of their games so far in 2025, instead of throwing the result away the Fijians methodically closed out the final 10 minutes to win 28-24 once they had taken the lead.
Moana Pasifika's first win of the season was notable for a couple of reasons, most obviously for the joy it brought the players and the side's growing number of fans.
Conventional wisdom suggested that any success Moana would have this season would be on the back of Ardie Savea's work rate and their close loss to the Highlanders certainly backed that up, but their lethal period after halftime that won them the game did not actually involve their new skipper.
Savea had left the field with a hamstring complaint, which ironically was a net positive that they can play that way without him because he was surely due for an All Black rest period now.
The jury's still out on whether the Crusaders are 'back', but their win over the Reds was the most compelling bit of evidence that they're heading that way at least.
Rob Penney's gameplan seems to be to get the ball to his All Black outside backs as fast as possible and it worked, they will have an eye on their match against the Blues in a fortnight as a real chance to make a statement of intent.
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