The James O'Connor verdict on ‘sped-up’ rugby, life in New Zealand

It may be leaving him gasping for air, but James O’Connor is loving the new high-octane pace of the Super Rugby Pacific as much as his eyebrow-raising move to New Zealand itself. If O’Connor thought he was leaving the hustle and bustle of Brisbane for a slower life, with wife and dog, in Christchurch, the 34-year-old has quickly discovered otherwise.

While he has found time off field to enjoy the peace and serenity of New Zealand’s South Island treasures, rule changes to speed up play on the field have left O’Connor equally breathless. After defecting from the Queensland Reds to the Crusaders, O’Connor claimed pre-season Super Rugby was the fastest level of the game he had encountered.

But now the former Wallabies playmaker and gamebreaker reckons the competition has hit another level after more than 1,000 points were recorded in the first 15 games over the opening three rounds in 2025. That equates to an extraordinary 67.4 points a match.

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“Well, you look at how fast everyone is scoring. It is because they are speeding the game up,” O’Connor said ahead of the Crusaders’ showdown with his old Reds teammates in Christchurch on Sunday. “There is more fatigue out there. There is more ball-a-minute play.

“Even for me as a goalkicker, I’m still getting my breath and I’m getting the 10-second call to kick the ball. So, like, I’m enjoying it. The game has definitely been sped up. There is more attacking pictures. For the fans as well it has got to be pretty cool to watch.”

 

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Even in his twilight years, O’Connor is endorsing the conscious effort of officials to up rugby’s tempo to make the game more entertaining. “You are always going to have a balance and we’ will find that, but people will want to see attacking footy.

“And there is still – as you saw on the weekend, a lot of the weekends – the teams that defended better still won. So you have to have a balanced game.”

O’Connor believes the faster-paced rugby is catching out teams – and players who can’t keep up. “You are seeing guys go down if they are not involved in that same play,” he said. “So I guess teams that want to slow the game down, they are not being able to do that.

“And also teams that want to close games out with, like, 10, 15 minutes to go, they are not being able to do that either. So it’s just making the fight, the contest, so much better.”

Overall, O’Connor reckons a fast game is a good game. “That is the beauty of rugby,” he said. “It’s a game of chaos and whoever can be the most calm in it, usually comes out on the other side.”

After starting with a match-winning cameo in round one against the Hurricanes, O’Connor is also fast proving a fan favourite for the Crusaders on the field and off. “Yeah, it’s cool, definitely. From when I first came, there was sort of mixed reviews,” he said. “It was like, ‘Do we really want an Aussie over here?’

“Well, look, I have got Kiwi parents and I’m just enjoying the challenge. I’m enjoying the culture. We had the week off the bye week, jumped in the camper van and went up north, you know, Marlborough Sounds to Kaikoura. I’m exploring the country and just really loving it with my wife and my dog.

“Everyone has been so inclusive and I can’t speak more highly of the players. I have just really enjoyed it. So now I just want to deliver footy-wise and give back in that way.”

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