Aussie Super Rugby takes: Reds' key men, Dylan Pietsch Australians form winger

The jostle for a finals spot has now struck down its first batch of victims, with the Fiji Drua, Highlanders, and Western Force knocked out in one brutal round of high hopes and crushed dreams.

The Waratahs remain the only side outside the top six with a shot at sneaking into finals, and it would have to come at the cost of the Queensland Reds, who sit only one spot higher than them in sixth.

The Brumbies’ less-than-convincing win over the Waratahs meant they are relying on other results to be able to do the unthinkable and claw their way into third.

Elsewhere, it’s all death, taxes, and the Crusaders making a late charge for another trophy, with the Cantabrians peaking at the right end of the season.

It now makes for a delicious final round of Super Rugby Pacific where first and second spots are locked down, but the position of sixth through to third is all up for grabs.

However, before we get there we must look back and see what we learned from round-15, so without further ado, here are the takes on the Aussie teams after the latest round.

Waratahs players step in to take the heat off coach Dan McKellar

“I’ve backed the coaching all year… and as a captain and a player, I am fully behind him,” captain Matt Philip said in the post-match press conference.

“I don’t know how many times we can speak about that A-zone area, we spend a lot of time on it, so it’s definitely the player’s responsibility.”

The Waratahs captain drew fire away from McKellar, pinpointing the woeful A-zone execution as something the players really need to own.

It’s an area of the game that has been a consistent issue in what can only be described as an inconsistent season.

By the 17th minute, they had been held up twice and repelled thrice, in a sliding doors stanza that could have changed their fortunes.

Two finished entries out of a total of 15 is a dire figure, and it would be tough to beat any opposition with that sort of ratio.

As this column has highlighted in weeks prior, their attack in the A-zone tends to be exceptionally narrow.

Although the Tahs’ captain backs this tactic, there were moments when you could throw a blanket over 13 of the starting XV, with flyer Max Jorgensen in acres of space with a one-on-one. 

As evidenced during the season, the power of the Waratahs’ carrying, their work in and around the set piece and breakdown, is doing enough to get them into the right parts of the field, but the players are just not finishing when it’s needed. 

While McKellar, as the coach, will wear the shortcomings of 2026 as a season, it is clear that the players on the park just haven’t been able to come together as a team.

Although the set-piece depth has improved a lot, and the Waratahs are building the combinations alongside an improved roster, it seems as though it all came together too late for 2026.

Brumbies fail to impress after their much-desired bye week

A win is a win, but a seven-point victory over the seventh-place Waratahs is not where this Brumbies side needs to be, only two weeks out from finals.

Their defensive edge, however, was impressive, and they never appeared flustered or as though they were out of their depth, which are great assets to have heading into finals, but it just wasn’t at the level of the other top four sides from across the ditch.

If you look across the finals landscape, the Crusaders are peaking and are being bolstered by returning All Blacks who are hitting the ground running.

The Chiefs, despite losing to the Crusaders, are playing to their brutal nature, with more than enough in-form attacking weapons to challenge anyone.

Finally, the Hurricanes are now well and truly alone at the top, and their form has not waned, not even in the slightest, all season.

The Blues, Reds, and Brums are all in the same boat, top-six sides that are still chasing consistent form.

For coach Stephen Larkham, he says the bye-week came at both the right and the wrong time, with the side building momentum, but also several players needing breaks.

He also mentioned the fact that he believes the squad is, in fact, showing all the signs that they are nearing a peak

“We’ve probably seen for the last two games now that the training environment, the training attitude, and the metrics that we are picking up in training have been just about spot on,” Larkham said in the post-match press conference.

The Brums had a less accurate lineout, way fewer post-contact metres, more penalties, and fewer line breaks on the night.

They were, however, better in defence, at winning turnovers, and were elite in A-zone execution.

Nevertheless, it’s difficult from the outside to say that the Brumbies are nearing any sort of peak, and if they are, it is well short of their previous years.

Massimo De Lutiis and Josh Canham are the key men for the Reds’ finals dash

The Queensland Reds survived the scare of the season with a come-from-behind win against the embattled Moana Pasifika in the final home game of the franchise’s existence.

Nevertheless, the Moana fans were treated to a show, with the homeside scoring first and putting on stellar scores elsewhere through Israel Leota and Semisi Tupou Ta’eiloa.

This early show of force by Moana meant the visitors had to fight from behind in the final minutes of the game to secure the win.

Several Wallabies stood up and impressed, with the likes of Fraser McReight back at his breakdown pilfering best, Jock Campbell with his typical scything runs, and Carter Gordon fizzing some world-class passes, but it was two lesser-known players who stood out.

Young prop Massimo De Lutiis was a colossus in contact. 

Very few people make dominant carries or tackles on Tupou Ta’eiloa, who is one of the best post-contact metre carriers in the comp at an average of 6.3m per carry.

But the young Queensland Red, who has set records in the gym, bent Semisi in tackles, and ran over him in attack, exhibiting how his raw strength is now becoming rugby power.

De Lutiis was also steady in the scrum, regularly seen shunting and forcing Moana to wheel and stagger; it’s a part of his game that the Reds are desperate to see flourish, with their propping stocks not fully delivering on their promise.

De Lutiis is the heir-apparent to Allan Alaalatoa and Taniela Tupou, but for now, he is short of gametime. 

Should he string together performances, then he could be a cornerstone to the Wallabies’ set piece come the Spring Tour.

Elsewhere, Canham worked brilliantly to improve the lineout efforts, which went from 57 per cent in rd-14 against the Western Force to 85 per cent against Moana.

It’s been the biggest thorn in the Reds’ side all season, and the struggling set piece can probably be blamed for costing them a bunch of competition points.

Canham’s raw athleticism and ability to sniff out space across the pitch were on clear display, and it earned him a try and almost earned him a brace in his first game back from a decent injury layoff.

Although it’s only one game back, it is clear to see how the Wallabies locking stocks are shaping up.

Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and Jeremy Williams are the clear front-runners, with Nick Frost, Matt Philip, Lachie Shaw, Darcy Swain, and, to a lesser extent, Miles Amatosero in the chasing pack.

If Canham can build on that performance, then he is very much in the mould of and with a similar skillset to Frost, which would make for an interesting selection conundrum for Joe Schmidt and Les Kiss.

Dylan Pietsch is the biggest difference maker for the Western Force

While a lot of the hype in the West has been surrounding rugby league convert Zac Lomax, Pietsch has truly been the player who has moved the dial for the Force.

It’s not only the volume of involvements that he goes hunting for that matter, but the quality and impact of those touches that give the side impetus, front-foot ball, and confidence in going wide.

The Force have been guilty of being too narrow throughout 2026, and have at times relied too heavily on their forwards, but Pietsch and, to some extent, Lomax have changed that.

The variation in Pietsch’s skillset is what makes him one of the most complete wingers in Australia, and his abrasiveness in defence also completes the Force’s push to be a defensive powerhouse.

Not only is Pietsch an elite defender and finisher, but he is also a great aerial threat, which allows the Force to keep the opposition’s backfields guessing with where they are raining their bombs.

It is a shame that the winger was injured for such a large chunk of the season, but it will give coach Simon Cron and the playing group confidence in what their roster is capable of in 2027.

Pietsch, with only one more game to play in SRP 2026, after the Force failed to secure the necessary bonus point win to have a shot at the finals, can rest easy for Wallabies selection after successfully reminding Schmidt why he was trusted in 2025.