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Super Rugby Pacific's rebirth can finally restore the missing All Blacks edge
By Ned Lester
It’s been a could have, should have, would have, kind of start to Super Rugby Pacific for some of the traditional heavyweights in New Zealand.
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In round five, the first of the two Kiwi derbies, a low-scoring encounter between the Highlanders and Hurricanes, was decided by just two points. The second, a 2024 final rematch between the Blues and Chiefs, was decided by just one point.
The Blues’ loss was the second consecutive one-point defeat for the reigning champions. 13 of the 25 games so far across the competition have been decided by less than seven points, making them a one-score game.
With victory and defeat within reach for all teams, skillsets are put under the microscope. Rugby has a long history of punishing teams who play beyond their limits, and in the pressure cooker, reality can be a humbling experience.
Recently, in an enlightening episode of The Good, The Bad and The Rugby ANZ, Will Jordan stopped by to chat with the lads.
One of the questions posed to the All Blacks superstar, along with new Crusaders teammate James O’Connor, was what separates international rugby from club rugby, even in the big leagues.
Both players agreed on the answer.
“The game’s just magnified, it’s such small margins and a little error here where maybe you push a pass in Super Rugby, you don’t get punished for. Whereas if you’re playing the Springboks at Ellis Park, you try and run it from your 22, you get caught, all of a sudden you get penalised, they’re into the corner with a five-metre maul and we have to stop their forward pack.
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“It’s just smaller margins and any mistake or decisions are just closely looked at and hugely consequential. That’s what I’ve found, you’ve just got to be nailing each moment. The game’s 80 moments, small moments just stacking up, stacking positives together is what gets you there.
“You can’t afford to take plays off or rest.”
The step up to the international arena from club rugby is always going to be significant, but how the domestic competitions prepare the players for the step up is what will have Scott Robertson licking his lips.
To Jordan’s point, round three of the 2024 Rugby Championship saw the All Blacks in Johannesburg, squaring off with the world champion Springboks for the first time since the 2023 Rugby World Cup final.
The Kiwis were up 10 points with 20 minutes remaining, they remained ambitious and turned down three points for a chance to go to the corner. The lineout move didn’t work out and the second breakdown of the move saw the ball carrier left unprotected. South Africa stole possession. After the Springbok clearance, the Kiwis had another lineout near halfway but again had possession stripped by the hosts.
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Aphelele Fassi made a linebreak, and while his grubber couldn’t be collected by Chelsin Kolbe, it did lead to another All Blacks lineout five metres out from their own line. Inaccuracy, while under immense pressure in the winning moments, had pushed the New Zealanders 90 metres in the wrong direction. Then, their clearance was charged. Moments later, the Springboks scored.
As the world’s No. 1 team kicked into high gear and executed flawlessly, New Zealand’s accuracy dropped off.
After losing that game, and the next in a similar fashion, a major criticism emerged over the All Blacks’ inability to perform late in games. While those concerns were largely eased by the end of The Rugby Championship and certainly done with by the time the Kiwis claimed victories over England and Ireland, the issue showed the team were starting behind the eight ball while their opponents were hitting the ground running.
The All Blacks reinvented themselves mentally after the 2007 Rugby World Cup, going from a team that struggled to perform under the brightest lights in the rugby world to a team synonymous with mental resilience. When the winning moments came around, regardless of how the game had been going up until that point, the Kiwis had the goods.
Now, in the eternal cycle of sports, the All Blacks are neither here nor there. Enter, Super Rugby Pacific.
With results hanging in the balance and Australian opposition at their strongest in a decade, New Zealand’s teams find themselves in winning moments more and more.
Late-game execution is deciding games more often than not, and while the lights aren’t as bright as the international stage, practice makes perfect.
Even more promising yet is the fact that it was someone like Xavi Taele, one of the most highly touted prospects to come from the 2024 New Zealand U20 campaign, who was taking the game-defining kick for the Blues against the Chiefs. The conversion was from the sideline and hit the post, but it was an invaluable experience for a 20-year-old in his first Super Rugby Pacific game.
For the Highlanders, Sam Gilbert had two chances to get his side in front, including an extra-time drop goal, but couldn’t convert.
Youngsters like Taele and Gilbert need to feel the weight of those situations to grow into players who can thrive in them, and with the competitive nature of Super Rugby Pacific 2025, players from across New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga are all learning what it is like to perform under pressure.
You can be a great team, but a true winning mentality is something that exists beyond strategy and talent. It’s a quality that is rarely nurtured in the transformational way needed for players to recognise the moment and step up to the plate.
Razor developed that quality within the Crusaders and clearly trusts those players in particular to bring it to the next level.
If this is the new Super Rugby standard, a generation of stress-tested athletes will be filtering into the All Blacks environment, and fans will be hoping they can restore the winning edge that’s been missing.
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Despite all the players and coaches lost overseas, there’s still just enough talent left to craft a really strong side, if Razor and Co actually have the guts to give younger players a chance, that doesn’t require an injury to make happen.
Trusting the same core group of ‘experience’ that’s been there for over five years now will just see the same results, and the same 70% win ratio come years end. If you ignore history, you’re doomed to repeat it.
Couldn’t agree more. For me that’s starting with Tavatavanawai at 12 and moving the captain to blindside to bring the big locks through.
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2024 All Blacks got cooked under pressure & when they need points they couldn’t find it …
D-Mac can create something out of nothing . But under presume he doesn’t have the goods . Barrett will kick the ball away first chance he gets , if he kicked into space it would be a string to his game . But it’s yet to be seen .
The starting 8 will be the key to the All Blacks . won’t matter who’s at 10 if the starting 8 don’t play a strong game . Ardie been carrying for to long . Will be on his last legs come 2027 hopefully by then we have more then just 1 or 2 ball carriers upfront who can actually make decent meters.
What’s the crowd draw for the games so far ? . I was watching the warriors play …
What made you say that? I thought it was the complete opposite, he was a master class when under pressure and too loose when comfortable.
I’m not sure what that paragraphs about? If it’s along the same lines as mine, “razor is talking bs” then I full endorse your sentiment lol
I’ve suggested to Spew in another article, its not the lack of ball carries, its the lack of intelligence carrying the ball. That’s the whole system. Fix the style and the exact same people carrying the ball will suddenly be world beaters imo. Definitely the work on area imo too.
Crowd draw? You mean how much are the crowds? Not much, camera setups are making it look better than it is (it’s still better though). Moana is the big change with more than one person in the seats now.
It dropped off in every single game of the year, right up until France. I don’t think you’re hitting the right tune as to the quandary of the dilemma they were in.
Yes, rather than it being the old cliche about small margins I think it is far more accurate to say trying to find the balance between accuracy and daring is much finer at test level. Practice and exploring that balance is about the only way you’re going to ‘win’, or come out on the right side, of those “small margins”.
Will Jordan himself is a great example of a player who is uncomfortable with his small margins or finding that right balance as he’s been asked by his coach to expand his repertoire. Making so many mistakes is not an indication he’s not a fullback, merely one pushing his boundaries and who needs the practice and time to find out where they are at each level and within himself.
Top forward thinking article Ned👍
You make interesting comments. But I have to say baffling selections over the last couple of years do not help. Beauden Barrett’s first option is to give the ball away by kicking straight back to the opposition. Will Jordan showed for the AB’s last year and this year back with the Crusaders that fullback is his best position. The try he scored against the Western Force was special. Beauden is at his best off the bench. Midfield selection of Reiko on going , is going nowhere. Braydon Ennor showed in his come back match for the Crusaders a week ago, there is a better way.
I don’t believe the premise that SR is hardening players for test rugby at all. If anything, the emphasis on tries encourages risk taking and sloppy handling. You only have to look at last year, when the ABs were too slow to adapt to the pressures of test rugby, and quite frankly England should have won their tests down under, being let down by a lack of nerve in the AB 22.
Foster’s tactic of box kicking to try to put pressure on the opponent has been a failure, but I’m not sure Robertson has any answers either, given the poor tactical kicking skills of the NZ players.
Mate we beat England in 4 tests last year and sorry NO they should not have won “hands down”. NZ earnt all 4 wins. England had opportunity in all the tests but they couldnt beat NZs defence.
There is no emphasis on tries d.
I didn’t see that. I saw what was in this article, an inability to hold opponents to the pressures of test rugby. They could do it fine for 30, 40, 50 minutes, but ultimately they didn’t capitalize enough during that period, and when they laxed that 10, 20, 30, minutes was enough for the opposition to get back in the game.
If it was more what you suggest, that it was the opposition that brought the ‘test intensity’ that they couldn’t adapt to, then it wouldn’t have happened in every game like it did.