Since the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been a competition dominated by New Zealand franchises. The Super Rugby Transtasman table in 2021 made for ugly reading for Australian fans as the Kiwi group occupied the top five spots on the 10-team ladder, with three of them going undefeated and the other two dropping just one of their five games.
That gap has been closing in the three Super Rugby Pacific seasons since, but the Brumbies are the only non-New Zealand team to have made the semifinals in that time.
Last weekend, the Fijian Drua tipped up the previously unbeaten Chiefs, Moana Pasifika halted the Hurricanes and the Brumbies beat the Blues at Eden Park for the first time since 2013.
Now four rounds into the new season, every team has a win and it’s the Blues and the Hurricanes – the champions and top-seeded team after the regular season in 2024 respectively – at the foot of the ladder.
For the competition’s chief executive, it’s an indication of things moving in the right direction.
“I’m pretty confident that Super Rugby Pacific, the style of rugby has been compelling for a while and we’re adding to that as we go; we’ve close results, unexpected results, and then the stats do say that this is not usual. This is the best season across some of our core measures in Super Rugby history,” Mesley told the Herald.
The Brumbies beat the Blues at Eden Park last week. Photo / Photosport
“To have that combination of open rugby, fast rugby, lots of tries but close games, that’s the perfect storm for a sports administrator. You can’t take a lot of credit for it...but I congratulate the teams’ coaches for the intent they’re playing and the match officials who are setting it up to play with that style and intent as well.”
Ahead of the season, the competition announced some tweaks around how the game is officiated, with new rules to protect the halfback, allowing play to continue if a not-straight lineout throw is uncontested, and reducing the time allowed for kicking penalty and conversion attempts.
They have also been working with officials on limiting delays in play and leading the decision-making to limit TMO involvement, all of which have been designed to get unnecessary stoppages out of the game.
“Fans would hear match officials saying to get the water runners off, we’re going to play on through minor injuries, get the scrum set – they’re being quite pushy out there and I’m really happy with that because it’s also those elements of time that are a frustration for fans,” he said.
“Getting rid of that wastage of time then just adds further fatigue into the game, which is then adding to the spectacle that we’re seeing.”
It seems to have had the desired effect through the early parts of the season, aiding in high-scoring, yet generally still competitive, affairs with an average of about 320 points scored per round. Through four rounds in 2024 – which featured an additional game as the competition was still a 12-team affair – an average of about 318 points were being scored per round.
While more points have been scored, the average margin in games has come in from about 12 points to nine.
“We want jeopardy in our competition, right? We want ladder movement. We don’t want teams to stay in the same ladder position that they were in last year,” Mesley said.
Ardie Savea celebrates during Moana Pasifika's win over the Hurricanes. Photo / Photosport
“We want unexpected results. We want every fan to be sitting here on a Friday at lunchtime going ‘I’m a chance this weekend’ so we have measures around that.”
All Blacks and Crusaders fullback Will Jordan gave the competition a glowing review when speaking to Sky Sport after his side’s win over the Reds on Sunday afternoon.
“I love playing open, free flowing footy and that’s exactly what the comp’s been. The standard so far, the competition amongst all the teams has been great...I feel like the buzz is back around Super Rugby and it’s great to be a part of it.”
The competition has enjoyed a rise in viewership numbers on this time last year. Sky released a ratings report after round three which showed a 12% increase on the 2024 audience at that stage of the competition. While viewership numbers have increased, the league still faces the challenge of getting punters back into stadiums to watch the action live, though Mesley has been pleased with how the competition was tracking in that area too.
“The rugby’s been so compelling. Some of that is left to the rugby gods with great 79th or 85th minute tries scored to win games, but part of that’s also in the planning,” Mesley said.
“But I think it’s not right to say that this is magic. Last year was also compelling, and I think what’s happening is it takes a while to bring people back to a product if people have turned away.”
Bringing fans back into the game has been a focus for Super Rugby this season, and that has seen things like teams and the competition having more of a presence on social media and the introduction of a Fantasy Super Rugby Pacific game, which encourages fans to watch more than just their team play as they track individual players.
So far, so good for Mesley. However, it is just a start.
For the competition’s boss, the next task is how to take Super Rugby Pacific from being a 20-odd week conversation to something that stays relevant for the entire year, with hopes of bringing the fans in on all the happenings in the off-season.
“There’s all of those things that still happen in the off-season that we just need to put some structure around how we communicate them and let people into those stories,” he explained.
“Filling a roster – when does that happen? How does that happen? How do we communicate that [and] bring people in the team in on those sorts of things?
“What happens during the NPC and what are our coaches doing and where are they going and what are they looking at and what are they seeing and what are their thoughts and who is the next person?
“There’s all of those things that we can do just with more structure without changing anything underneath.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
