It should be a dry night and a firm field for the game, and given that last weekend there were flashes of the brilliant runner that Barrett can be, fingers crossed that the Blues will be aiming to feed their speed kings out wide.
While the Brumbies were ultimately overwhelmed in the final quarter when they lost, 49-34, to the Chiefs last weekend in Hamilton, the men from Canberra are a better team than the 15-point margin indicated.
This could be the match of the round.
Bad luck and trouble
The rugby fates seem to conspire against Blues No 8, Hoskins Sotutu.
Dropped from the All Blacks in 2023 by Ian Foster, an outstanding start to 2024 for the Blues didn’t sway new coach Scott Robertson last year. Sotutu had knee surgery last November and had rehabbed well enough over summer that the 2025 Super season looked like a golden chance to fight for national recognition.
But his comeback goes on hold with the three-week ban for a careless high tackle on the Hurricanes’ Peter Lakai last Saturday. Sotutu is still only 26, and if ever a player deserved a break, he’s one.
There will be sweat
If Saturday afternoon’s game between the Chiefs and the Fijian Drua was in Hamilton the result would probably be a foregone conclusion, a Chiefs victory.
But the match is in Lautoka, which means the most wonderfully noisy and partisan crowd in Super Rugby will be screaming for the Drua. Add in the fact it’ll be rainy and around 30C, and the odds start to level out.
The Chiefs are without Damian McKenzie, recovering from a knee injury, but there’s enough depth in their squad to suggest that although they’ll feel like they’ve run a marathon in a sauna, they should emerge victorious.
Will this be Moana’s breakthrough?
Moana Pasifika get a chance in Albany on Saturday night to break their losing streak of three defeats from three games when they play the Hurricanes.
As well as the contest itself, the focus will be on two players who will make their 2025 starting debuts.
One is the gifted Ruben Love, at fullback for the Canes. Love had major ankle surgery in December and has spent the summer, as he phrased it, learning how to run again. A fully fit Love will be a major threat to Moana’s defensive line.
The other is Moana’s new first five-eighths, Patrick Pellegrini, who looked composed and hugely competent in his team’s nail-biting 31-29 loss to the Highlanders last Friday.
Pellegrini’s nomadic story ranges from being born in Sydney, where his Tongan mother grew up, to playing club rugby in England for Coventry and representing Tonga at the 2024 World Cup. Now 26, he might be the key to unlocking Moana’s full potential.
Welcome back, Codie
There’ll be no easing back into the game for Crusaders hooker Codie Taylor, who’ll start in the front row against the Reds on Sunday afternoon in Christchurch.
Taylor can potentially boost the Crusaders in three areas. His leadership, as a 96-test All Blacks veteran. His ability to break tackles and make the gain line in general play.
And his throwing to the lineout, which is a skill in greater demand in 2025 than ever before, with the 30-second time limit for lineouts now being enforced.
It’s a huge match for the Crusaders. The TAB has them as red-hot favourites, despite the fact the Reds have beaten Moana (56-36) and the Force (28-24) in their opening games of the season.
To appease their own fans, nothing less than a win at home is needed for Rob Penney’s men.
Hailing heroes
I mean no disrespect to Super Rugby, but the highlight of my weekend will be attending the reunion in Te Aroha of the Thames Valley team that beat Australia 16-14 there in 1962.
As a Waihī College schoolkid in ′62, I watched in awe as local farmers, truck drivers, school teachers and stock agents, reduced to 14 men by injury after just seven minutes, showed why real-life sport can eclipse any scripted theatre.
In hindsight, the passion for the drama of sport that the event sparked changed my life.
No rugby bookshelf should be without it
In a staggeringly detailed 524 pages, the 2025 Rugby Almanack covers every area of the men’s and women’s game in New Zealand.
The coverage ranges from fine detail of every test played by the All Blacks and Black Ferns to which club won the Wairarapa-Bush Chris “Moose” Kapene Memorial Cup. (It was Carterton.)
The wonderful thing about the Almanack is that whatever it states will be accurate.
