Crusaders v Hurricanes
Kick-off: 7:05pm Friday 14 Feb
Apollo Projects Stadium, Christchurch
Live blog updates on RNZ Sport
Super Rugby Pacific isn't quite in brave new world territory just yet, but it is fair to say things are at least feeling different. For starters, we're going into a season for the first time since 2017 without presuming the Crusaders would simply defend another title. There's been one huge off season move, once again at the Hurricanes' expense, as well as a massively hyped code jumper in Australia. A new fantasy competition for fans has been launched.
On the other hand, there's one less team. The All Black influence over the New Zealand teams is evident in the first team namings of the year, with the Chiefs the most obvious example - benching four of their regular starters and having their breakout player of 2024 watching on with a busted knee. Across the ditch, rugby union is entering its biggest period in a long time, however its utterly crucial just how the Brumbies, Waratahs, Reds and Force will fully take advantage of the added attention.
And Super Rugby Pacific has a new boss. Australian Jack Mesley has stepped into the CEO role and has identified one of the biggest issues the competition faces.
"We don't want super just to be a 19 week discussion," the former A-Leagues Chief Commercial Officer says. It's his third code swap overall after holding the same role at the Bulldogs NRL side.
Jack Mesley during the 2025 Super Rugby Season Launch at Little Bay Beach in Sydney. Photo: Matt King/Getty
"We want it to be a 52 week discussion. There are some player moves that already happen, that we need to make more of, how the Crusaders fill their roster every year is a story in itself. People want the big news; they want the big movements. But there's also so much more we can be doing with the within the existing framework, I think you only have to look at the Ardie announcement when it happened a few months ago to see how much interest that's developed. There is fan appetite for it."
Mesley's referring to the one issue that sets rugby apart from other professional sports, and not in a good way. It has a market as a secondary conversation aside from what happens on the field, but it's very much a one way street heading away to Japan or France. It's meant that fans spend far more time debating why players aren't moving between New Zealand and Australian sides rather than why they are.
Like a lot of things in rugby, it's a complicated issue that feels needlessly so. Mesley acknowledges that, because a lot of it is out of their hands, so the elusive goal of having All Blacks and Wallabies in an open transfer market is still just a dream for now.
"Eligibility rules and things like that is a big, big change and takes a long time to work that through - if that was indeed to happen," says Mesley. He brings up a valid point about the constant comparison to Australia's two major codes that rugby has to compete against for attention, though.
"The NRL and AFL - that everyone like to kind of reference in terms of salary caps and squad movement and things like that - they're a closed player ecosystem. They're not going to France, they're not going to Japan. They are staying within and so moving people within is a little bit easier. We've got to do it in a fiscally responsible way, with respect to national team success. That poses a whole lot of different questions and scenarios than the other codes have."
So really, for now it's a case of working with what they've got.
"But in the short term, what we can do is work better to tell the stories that exist every year (and) we need to make sure is that we have more matches that matter through the comp right now. More unexpected result, closer results, etc. Different teams winning, making finals series. So it's certainly a focus for us in terms of what can we do at a competition level."
The good news for Mesley is that's already started happening because no one would've foreseen what ended up happening last year with the Crusaders. In a competition that was capable of providing the most entertaining rugby throughout the season before the same team always won it, the subsequent Blues triumph was a valuable one for New Zealand's biggest market. Is the next item on the wish list a trip for the trophy to Sydney or Brisbane?
Beauden Barrett and Joseph-Akuso Suaalii. Photo: Karen Watson
"The clubs have to deliver," is Mesley's message as Australia prepares to host a Lions tour this year and a World Cup in 2027.
"So it has to happen, to take advantage of it. Certainly from an Australian point of view from our competition, you know, winning in key markets, like New South Wales, where there is a large population, and a large population of rugby fans and lapsed rugby fans, they're really important markets for us to get right, to build the competition."
To put it bluntly, the Waratahs winning Super Rugby Pacific would be a game changer. But given how shambolic they've been since their only title win in 2014, that seems a long way off. They have acquired Joseph-Akuso Suaalii, arguably as big a deal as Ardie Savea's transfer to Moana Pasifika, so that's a good start in terms of drawing attention.
Mesley admits that's something that Super Rugby Pacific could be better at.
"We need to promote more matches that matter. And we can do that in lots of different ways, so that that remains a focus for us … (but) we need more teams to be competitive. And I think you're going to see that this year. One of the positives to come out of what was a really difficult situation the Rebels is the squad depth across the board of the Australian teams has improved."
As far as silver linings go, it is a slim one after the Rebels debacle. Another one is now at least the competition won't suffer from a series of bye weeks that have stopped the momentum dead in its tracks over the past couple of seasons. It is a step in the right direction in Mesley's aim of making SRP a talking point beyond June each year.
"What I'm confident on is that over time, as we continue on that focus, that things are going to be examined and looked at," he says.
"We are looking at Super Rugby Pacific not just as a development centre for high performance, but as a great competition that engages fans and can drive commercial value. And so the right conversations are happening."
