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'Can NZ sustain five teams?': Knives out on historic weekend for New Zealand Super teams
By Ben Smith
Round four of Super Rugby Pacific delivered a round of upsets with New Zealand Super Rugby teams on the wrong side of the ledger for the first time in 25 years.
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The Blues, Chiefs, and Hurricanes all lost their fixtures and with the Highlanders on the bye week, only the Crusaders can prevent history from occurring on Sunday afternoon against the Reds.
According to New Zealand Rugby Database the last time all New Zealand teams lost was the year 2000, however this could be the 12th occasion in history where four teams lose and first since 2013.
Has only happened once before … Round 12 – 2000, all 5 NZ teams lost.
However, as the Highlanders aren't playing … 4 NZ teams have lost in the same round on 11 occasions.
Last time was in Round 4 – 2013. https://t.co/TD472eNSjR
— Rugby Database Stats & Info (@nzrugbydatabase) March 8, 2025
The Blues were gunned down by the Brumbies after holding a 20-10 lead at half-time at Eden Park, going scoreless in the second half as the Brums captured a 21-20 win.
The Chiefs were beaten in Fiji by the Drua, their first loss in history to the expansion franchise. However, the result as an ‘upset’ is questionable, as the Drua have proven to be strong at home since their inception.
The @Fijian_Drua now boast a 70% win record in Fiji.
12 of their 15 @SuperRugby wins have come at home.
Churchill Park, Lautoka – 8 wins from 10 games
HFC Bank Stadium, Suva – 4 wins from 7 games#SuperRugbyPacific pic.twitter.com/In77Dkb1Ym— Rugby Database Stats & Info (@nzrugbydatabase) March 8, 2025
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The Chiefs first road trip to Lautoka in 2022 resulted in a great escape, scrapping by 35-34 to avoid defeat, while the Crusaders (twice) and Hurricanes have lost in Fiji already.
Moana Pasfika registered their second ever win over the Hurricanes, with a stunning performance in Albany to win 40-31.
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? 🍿
Three HUGE shocks in Round 4 of Super Rugby Pacific so far 🤯#SuperRugbyPacific pic.twitter.com/p60EdyqrBT
— Super Rugby Pacific (@SuperRugby) March 8, 2025
Before the Crusaders match with the Reds, three of the New Zealand teams occupy the last three spots on the Super Rugby ladder.
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Should the Crusaders win, they will move into 7th above the Drua but the Hurricanes and Blues will remain in the cellar after 1-3 starts to the year.
Australian fans were quick to dig the knife in after the Melbourne Rebels went defunct last year, reducing active Australian teams to four.
Can NZ sustain 5 teams? 👀 pic.twitter.com/x9FPXFZGv7
— NotEvensSteven (@NotEvensSteven) March 8, 2025
The blues and canes are a worry, for sure. They aren't playing well.
The chiefs losing in lautoka, the graveyard of the pacific, doesn't ring any alarm bells
— Sgt. Stumpy (@stumpy2121) March 8, 2025
Blues chiefs canes all lose wow. Boutta go 0/5 on picks lol
— T (@bigswhatfanx) March 8, 2025
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This headline is clickbait nonsense - sure the Aussies can have a laugh at the weekend’s results - when you’ve been as bad as they have for the last 20 years, all you can do is laugh.
If Aussie teams win the next 20 Super Rugby titles and don’t have half of their players from NZ, then we can revisit this.
All other NZ teams seemed to think they were as Highlanders & on a sleepy bye for large parts of their matches.
Blues, Chiefs, Hurricanes, Crusaders all sleepy, sloppy on the weekend.
But worse,
Blues last 15min was the bumbling blues of old,
Chiefs, credit to Fiji they taught Chiefs a lesson about the sleepiness
Hurricanes, ditto re Moana.
Crusaders, school boy in the 1st 30 min. Poor skill levels another black mark on Penny. Havili is obviously not interested & should retire. Blackadder while active was ragdolled every time he got the ball; poor technique & power.
Lol, Did you even watch the Crusaders game? They scored 3 tries in the first 30 minutes. Nothing wrong with their skill levels either, although too many errors on both sides. If you don’t like the Crusaders fine, but don’t make up bollocks to support your bias.
To be honest, NZ has 6 franchises as 90% of Moana Pacifika’s roster are NZ born and developed through NZ school system rugby into NPC.
All of MP’s starting players, and many reserves, would have been on the rosters of the other 5 NZ franchises and almost all NZ born players, not imports.
Moana Pacifika may represent Samoa and Tonga but they are in fact New Zealand citizens in most cases.
There are in fact 6 NZ franchises, 4 Australian franchises, and 1 Fiji franchise.
It’s great for the comp being so tight but let’s not get carried away - Crusaders and Chiefs are still the pinnacle and Blues will be better as they get their cavalry back. Highlanders can still go either way, suspect that with their squad’s average age their winning run will come in the years ahead.
Very happy for Pacifica and Drua, playing great rugby.
yes we can and it makes a change for the ausssie teams beating nz teams and great to see fijidrua and mana pacifica having wins at the weekend
Weird article. The Table shows that it’s so early in the comp that the last placed team can theoretically jump to 3rd with a bonus point win next round. Give it time.
Silly article. 1 weekend doesnt make a season.
they didn’t each lose 3 out of 4 matches in one weekend, did they?
Razor and Leon MacDonald were saying several seasons ago it was getting tough to fill SR squads with quality all the way through. With the constant player losses overseas, five teams is a struggle. You could probably make another one or two stronger kiwi sides just from those lost overseas (and to other nations).
And it’s certainly not helped by Moana Pasifika basically being a sixth Kiwi team in disguise. Two of those six teams should probably go.
JH I was really surprised to find out that NZ have 27000 registered adult players and SA 123 000. SA have only four tier one franchises so it’s not surprising NZ is struggling to maintain six teams albeit one thinly disguised as MP.
New Zealand will always be a formidable rugby nation, but it would appear that the rest of the world has caught up with them. If you are interested I watched some games from the 2019 WC and compared them to the 24 EOTY tour games. What is apparent is that South Africa have evolved their style of play but NZ play pretty much the same as they have for the past ten years. My theory is that it is hurting NZ rugby by not having input from players playing in the NH. Having said that for most rugby enthusiasts world over the AB’s are always the team other sides want most to beat.
The NH style is sh*t. It’s ruining Rugby as a spectacle. Boring af. On̈e thing the North should adopt immediately is increasing the fatigue factor. The Referee game management in SRP minimising stoppages makes for a great product. It’s amazing when a player (usually a prop or lock after multi phase play) is healed instantly when the ref says “don’t take a knee, play on or get off”. Rugby quote of the year?
I agree the ABs lost innovation, probably around 2017, highlighted by the BIL’s tour. Hansen had been an ABs coach since 2004, & frankly, seemed to have reached his “used by” date post RWC2015. The appointment of his mini-me Foster in 2020 meant the ABs were predictably trash by 2022. Razor’s appointment needed to wash the Hansen/Foster stale/mediocrity stink out of the ABs system & move the team forward. 2024 was a cautious start. 2025 needs to be a full Razor takeover.
The rest of the world is leaving NZ for dead, and the lack of skills and brains from both coaches and players is being badly exposed. Time to lose the arrogance and stop living on past glories. I hope I’m wrong, but I think NZ will be down to #5 in the world behind both England and France by the end of the year.