Final Super Rugby Pacific Round: Playoff Spots And Home Semis On The Line
Final Super Rugby Pacific Round: Playoff Spots And Home Semis On The Line
The Super Rugby Pacific regular season ends this weekend with playoff spots, home semifinals and finals hopes on the line. Here's what to watch.
The 2025 Super Rugby Pacific regular season has been in full swing since February.
It all comes to a head this weekend.
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The sixth, and final, playoff spot is up for grabs, as is a crucial home semifinal, during the 16th round of Super Rugby Pacific action, which wraps up the regular season this weekend.
The league final is just around the corner, and the competition calendar soon will be shifting to win-or-go-home matches.
It has been a helter-skelter season to date, and on the final weekend before the competition condenses to six teams, you don’t want to miss any minute of the calamity that is to come.
Here’s a look at one big thing that you need to know about every Super Rugby Pacific match this weekend, with all matches being streamed live, exclusively on FloRugby, in the United States and Canada:
NOTE: The Western Force are on a bye this week.
Chiefs At Highlanders
A Victory Lap For The Chiefs?
The class of the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific season to date, the Chiefs, perched in first place by a point ahead of the regular season’s final round, are sitting pretty and can cap an already fantastic campaign in style this weekend against the last-place, already-eliminated Highlanders in Dunedin.
Having all but clinched a top-2 spot in the table after blasting away Moana Pasifika last weekend, the Chiefs essentially have guaranteed a first-round bye and home semifinal thanks to their wide point differential of +214, over 100 points more than the next closest team, and 10 victories that only the Crusaders can surpass and the Brumbies can tie.
A Chiefs victory without a bonus point this weekend almost certainly would mean that Clayton McMillan’s men would secure the top seed no matter what happens below them in the Crusaders-Brumbies match, as well, though getting the bonus point on top of it would secure it outright.
The Chiefs plan to pull no punches in their regular-season finale with a stacked starting XV that includes plenty of All Blacks - Samisoni Taukei’aho, Damian McKenzie and Josh Lord - along with the returning Etene Nanai-Seturo on the left wing in his first match since picking up a hamstring injury against the Blues in February.
Crusaders At Brumbies
Home Semifinal On The Line
Both the Brumbies and Crusaders have clinched knockout spots for multiple weeks now, but there’s still so much to play for when the two title contenders clash in Canberra this weekend.
The Crusaders (second place, 45 points) and Brumbies (third place, 43 points) each can join the Chiefs as one of the two teams to have earned a first-round bye and home semifinal, should they beat the other this weekend, with the victor earning a crucial extra week of rest for the postseason fixtures ahead.
Should the Highlanders do the improbable and stun the Chiefs, however, Crusaders-Brumbies then turns into an all-out war for first place, with the loser being guaranteed third, adding to the already present drama this weekend in the Australian capital.
In what very well could be a semifinal rematch in a couple weeks, both the Crusaders and Brumbies are loaded to the teeth.
Ethan Blackadder returns just in time in the back row for his 50th cap with the Crusaders after a string of lower-body injuries, and he is joined in the starting lineup by team stalwarts, such as Codie Taylor, Sevu Reece and Scott Barrett.
The Brumbies also get a big return in fly-half Noah Lolesio, who will make a miraculous comeback after being stretchered off the pitch three weeks ago against the Western Force, and have the added benefit of a week’s rest after being on bye last round.
New South Wales Waratahs At Blues
Win At All Costs
The only match of the weekend between two teams with uncertain fates, circle New South Wales Waratahs-Blues as the Round 16 fixture most likely bound to go haywire.
Let’s start by talking about the Blues, the reigning Super Rugby Pacific title holders, who are in deep trouble but can pull off a miraculous great escape.
A miserable midseason stretch of form that featured just three wins from their first 10 matches threatened to bring their repeat hopes to a crashing halt, but back-to-back victories before a crucial Round 14 loss to Moana Pasifika have the Blues on the outside looking in (in seventh place), for now.
They are tied with sixth-place Moana on 28 points but have one fewer victory, meaning that in the event of a tie on competition points for the sixth playoff spot, Moana would get the nod on the wins tiebreaker.
A win over the 'Tahs at Eden Park is an obvious need, but a bonus-point victory would be preferred, especially if Moana can’t do the same against the Hurricanes later in the weekend.
As for the 'Tahs, they need some extra help to make the top 6.
At 26 points in eighth place, they have to beat the Blues in Auckland for the first time in 16 years and hope the Hurricanes beat or draw Moana to find themselves in a position to advance.
The opportunity was rescued at the death last weekend against the Western Force, thanks to a thrilling 91st-minute winner from Darby Lancaster in added time.
Moana Pasifika At Hurricanes
A (Bonus-Point) Win And In
Moana Pasifika’s 2025 campaign has been chaotic, but it just might be enough for them to make the finals for the first time in club history.
After a three-match winning streak going into Round 15 put Tana Umaga’s side on the doorstep of all but securing a historic inaugural trip to the postseason, the table-topping Chiefs instead completely sledgehammered Moana in Hamilton by a record-setting 85-7 scoreline, racing for 13 tries and recording their largest margin of victory ever in a Super Rugby Pacific match.
The good news for Moana is that it didn’t lose any ground to the seventh-place Blues (who were on a bye), and both Moana and the defending Super Rugby Pacific champions are equal on 28 points going into the final weekend of the regular season.
Moana, being in sixth with six wins to the Blues’ five, holds the advantage going into their final regular-season match against the already clinched Hurricanes.
Here are the scenarios for what is to date the biggest match in the team’s history:
Should Moana secure a bonus-point victory in Wellington, the team will be uncatchable to either the Blues or eighth-place New South Wales Waratahs and play postseason rugby.
Should the Moana Pasifika win, but not pick up the bonus point, the Blues still can surpass them if they get a bonus-point win over the 'Tahs.
Should Moana lose, the squad likely can kiss the finals goodbye, unless the group can get a losing bonus point and Blues-'Tahs is a draw.
Fijian Drua At Queensland Reds
Reds Playing For Position
By comparison to the rest of the slate, Fijian Drua-Queensland Reds has the lowest stakes, as the Drua are eliminated from playoff contention, and the Reds already are in the finals, having clinched last week thanks to the Chiefs’ massive win over Moana Pasifika despite the Reds dropping their game to the Hurricanes.
Still, the Reds can find themselves playing home playoff rugby in the quarterfinals if results go their way, which should be more than enough to get their dressing room riled up for the final matchday of the regular season.
A win over the Drua and a loss or draw from the Hurricanes — who are a point ahead of the Reds in fourth on 34 points — would get the Reds over the line in fourth, though as the Drua beat the Reds once before (Round 12 in Suva), Les Kiss’ side probably doesn’t want to take any chances in the return leg in Brisbane.
Center Josh Flook makes the Reds’ starting XV for the first time in nearly three months after suffering a hamstring injury in Round 3, coming back at just the right time, as his team tries to end the regular season on a high note and put on a successful tune-up performance for the knockout rounds ahead.
Written by Briar Napier
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