Rugby Union
Super Rugby Pacific: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
Wussup Sports Fam, It’s mid-February, and the Rugby season in Aotearoa has begun with the good, the started bad but turned good, the didn't realize it was good, and the ugly.
by Cameron Schuister I 20th February 2026
Yep, I just remixed the title of one of the great Spaghetti Westerns into a week 1 sum up of Super Rugby Pacific, and who is the Man with No Name character and star of the round? Well, he has a name, and it’s Joseph. Jamie Joseph. The man, on the cusp of possibly being the next All Blacks coach, who orchestrated a win against the defending champs Crusaders, under the Forsyth roof. Not bad for Joseph to look good in front of the NZR board with his first game off his application.
The Good
The Highlanders Crusaders match last week was probably the best match of the whole round. It was intense, a couple of brilliant tries, one by Caleb Tangitau picking up where he left off last season, showing off his jets burning out wide (come back to the Blues dox). Tavatavanawai with a Harlem Globetrotters offload and a down-to-the-wire finish. Clutch Cam Millar with ice in his veins slotted the penalty kick in the last minute to win 25-23. For the Crusaders, their dangerous attack was there, but their ball security wasn't. Saders conceded 14 more turnovers and lost 5 more rucks than the Southern men, while the buildups of Leicester Fainga’anuku returned to his wing spot and Penny forgot to start Cody Taylor and Will Jordan. All Blacks' rest protocols izit, or wannabe bomb squad? It was too late. Let the 2026 Landers hang around at your peril. A pretty entertaining match, if this felt like a sign of the matches to come in the weekend, then yeah, nah, unless you’re a Moana fan.
The started Bad but turned out Good
What’s this? State of Origin in February? No, it's State of the Union, Queensland vs New South Wales, with fewer crowds. This was a Friday late-night match, and the only thing that interested me was how well Joseph Sua’alii would play. Big fan. He had a quiet night, though, gaining 24 meters over 11 carries. This was one of those boring matches that waited until the final 15 minutes for the floodgates to open, and that's when the Waratahs washed away the Reds 36-12 with 4 unanswered tries in the final 15 minutes. Try of this match goes to Max Jorgensen, who broke ankles with swerve and speed. Watch out for this guy. Shoutout to the toko, Clem Halaholo, number 6 for the Waratahs, scoring a try on debut and unLuggy Uce to the toko Vaiuta Latu from the Waratahs for the first yellow card for Super Rugby Pacific 2026
The Didn't know it was Good
There have only been a few fortresses in Super Rugby, but Churchill Park, Fiji, has been the Drua's Eden Park for the All Blacks. It’s the place where visiting teams go to lose. With that being said, new year, new rules, no Ardie, no worries. Moana Pasifika enters the fortress and takes over. The Moana flag is flying at high mast, running over an unprepared Fijian Drua, scoring 6 tries to Drua’s 4. This was the match that probably killed everyone's multis, with Drua as heavy favourites and Moana coming in without key players from last season. Shoutouts to Miracle Fai’ilagi for his hat trick.
The Ugly
A lot of uglies in this one. First one goes to NZR and their All Blacks rest protocols. The benching of stars Beauden Barrett and D-Mack on their Super Rugby opener is a head-scratcher. You’d think for New Zealand’s premier (semi) domestic rugby competition and going up against the NRL, all hands should be on deck. The fans want to see the stars play. I would, if I were to buy tickets to watch live. Should ticket sales be discounted? Only fair to right? So, why do you need rest protocols the first week of the season when the last 2 months were December and January? Oh, because the All Blacks need a rest from their holiday, makes sense.
The game itself, well, there's your reason for having Beaudy and D-Mack play. The most boring first half ever, too many mistakes on both sides, missed conversions, and yeah, not pretty. The Blues struggled to get their groove on and fell to the Chiefs 15-19.
Ugly start to the Blues season, no pun intended, it feels like it’s going to be a long season.
The next ugly is with a capital ‘U’. So, Tupou Vaa’i hurdles over Blues tacklers off the ruck on the Blues line to score an eatass try. The ref awards it, Vaa’i points to his head like Carmelo Anthony knocking down threes, and Blues fans were wondering wtf. It must be something of a Super Bowl hangover because there were two other ‘hurdle’ incidents in the round, which were called up as illegal, so go figure.
So there it was, Super Rugby Pacific begins 2026 with… well, probably typical for first rounders, a lot of rust and a few mistakes, but it also showed us the potential of rising stars putting up their hands for international honors later on this year. Let’s get it fam