Five storylines ahead of the Super Rugby Pacific round including the champions feeling the heat

David Skippers
Super Rugby Pacific Round 3 storylines pic 2024.jpg

Crusaders trio Quinten Strange, Tom Christie and George Bell, Akira Ioane of the Blues and Noah Lolesio of the Brumbies.

The 2024 Super Rugby Pacific season is in full swing and there are several entertaining encounters set to take place this weekend.

Ahead of the Round Three action, Planet Rugby has selected five storylines to follow in the various clashes.

Crusaders feeling the heat

It’s only the third round of Super Rugby Pacific but already there is plenty of pressure on the tournament’s defending champions, the Crusaders, who have suffered back-to-back defeats in their previous two matches – against the Chiefs and Waratahs.

New head coach Rob Penney came into the job with a tough act to follow in replacing Scott Robertson, who won a Super Rugby title in each of his seven seasons at the helm of the Christchurch-based outfit before taking charge of the All Blacks.

After losing those matches to the Chiefs and Waratahs, the champions can ill afford another defeat but they face a tough assignment away to the Fijian Drua on Saturday.

While the Drua have also lost their first two matches – against the Blues and Moana Pasifika – this game will be played at Churchill Park in Lautoka where they clinched a shock 25-24 victory over the Crusaders in the last year’s corresponding fixture.

The Fijian outfit always seem to grow an arm and a leg in front of their home fans and will be highly motivated to repeat last year’s heroics against the champions.

Akira Ioane has big boots to fill

The Blues are up against the Hurricanes in Wellington in a highly anticipated New Zealand derby on Saturday and despite a superb start to the season, the Auckland-based outfit’s head coach Vern Cotter has made several changes to his starting line-up.

One of the shock selections for this week was Cotter’s decision to drop the Blues’ first choice number eight Hoskins Sotutu with fellow All Black Akira Ioane shifting from the blindside flank to take his place, while Anton Segner comes into the run-on side to wear the number six jersey.

While Ioane is no stranger to the number eight position, it’s a massive gamble to omit Sotutu as he has been in excellent for the Blues this season. The 25-year-old has started the year like a house on fire as he is currently the tournament’s leading try-scorer (5) after notching a brace against the Drua and a hat-trick against the Highlanders.

Brumbies determined to bounce back

The Canberra-based outfit have been Australia’s standard bearers at Super Rugby Pacific level in recent years as they have reached the semi-finals in 2022 and 2023 where they have suffered defeats to the Blues and Chiefs respectively.

After starting their 2024 campaign in style with a one-sided 30-3 bonus-point victory against the Rebels at AAMI Park in Melbourne, they suffered a humiliating 46-12 defeat to the Chiefs in their Super Round encounter at the same venue last weekend.

Despite that loss, head coach Stephen Larkham has not made many alterations to his run-on side for their derby against the Western Force in Canberra on Saturday.

With it being their first home game of the season, Brumbies fans will be hoping for a polished performance from their team and it could be a long day at the office for the Force, who can expect a backlash from their hosts who will be keen to get their campaign back on track.

New role for Ethan de Groot

New Zealand’s premier loosehead prop has emerged as one of the world’s leading players in his position in recent years, after catching the eye with several outstanding displays at Super Rugby level and in the Test arena.

However, the burly front-row will have a new task on his hands as he is set to lead the Highlanders for the first time when they take on the Waratahs in Sydney on Friday.

De Groot’s elevation to the Dunedin-based franchise’s captaincy came about after first choice skipper Billy Harmon was demoted to the replacements bench along with fellow loose forward and leadership group member Sean Withy, after they broke team protocol by being late for a team meeting.

It will be interesting to see how De Groot responds with the added responsibility of leadership on his shoulders and whether he can lead the team to victory against the Sydneysiders, who are on a high after beating the Crusaders last weekend.

Moana Pasifika keen to build on rare win

Since the inaugural Super Rugby Pacific tournament in 2022, Moana Pasifika have found the going tough as they finished with the Wooden Spoon that year as well as during the 2023 campaign.

Moana’s overall performance over the past two seasons have been woeful as they have won just three matches out of 28 played and it was not surprising when Tana Umaga took over the coaching reins from Aaron Mauger after last season’s campaign.

Two of those victories came in 2022 which meant that by beating the Fijian Drua last weekend, Moana have already matched their 2023 performance when they won just one game.

Round Three’s action kicks off in Hamilton on Friday when Moana host the Rebels, who are also on a high after beating the Force in their previous match. Despite that result, Umaga and his troops will fancy their chances against the men from Melbourne, who are battling for survival due to off-field issues and a win for Moana should boost their morale as they prepare for the rest of the campaign.

READ MORE: Super Rugby Pacific Team Tracker: Former All Black set to make Reds debut against Chiefs

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