Risk vs reward: Five Super Rugby clubs shake things up in round four

It’s still early in the Super Rugby Pacific season but five teams have decided to take a risk in round four, as former Wallaby Cameron Shepherd explained.

In rugby union, your fly-half is your quarterback. If you look back at some of the greatest teams and dynasties in the sport, it’s the likes of Dan Carter, Jonny Wilkinson, Richie Mo’unga with the Crusaders and Beauden Barrett who have stood out as generals for their team.

That’s what makes some Super Rugby selection bombshells so intriguing heading into the next set of fixtures, with a handful of teams changing their chief playmaker in a bid to either find some form or maintain their winning starts to the 2025 season.

The Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika are both yet to win a match from their three starts so far, so they’ve made a change at No. 10 with Isaiah Armstrong-Ravula replacing Caleb Muntz in the Drua’s run-on side and Patrick Pellegrini earning a maiden start for Moana.

All Black Beauden Barrett shifts to first five-eighth for the Blues, with the defending champions looking to back-to-back after beating the Hurricanes last time out. The NSW Waratahs and Queensland Reds have also made a change despite their 2-0 starts to the campaign.

“In general, any time you want to change your fly-half in my opinion, it can come with a lot of risks,” Shepherd said on Stan Sports’ Rugby Heaven. “First and foremost, just the balance of your team.

“Remember, they’re the first receiver off any set-piece, any ruck, any maul, so everyone else takes their set-up… from where their 10 starts. Depending on where they stand and how quickly they move onto the ball, it can affect a lot of moving pieces.”

“They’re changing because the style of game, Super Rugby Pacific is telling us after round three, it’s fast, there’s shorter time, you need good organisers and you need organisers that can spot opportunity for themselves and the team very quickly,” another former Wallaby, Justin Harrison, added.

“The 10s is all about finding form. Look at the 10s that have changed, the Blues, obviously trying to find some form; the Tahs, Tane Edmed hasn’t locked that down yet.”

Waratahs coach Dan McKellar has rewarded former Queensland Reds pivot Lawson Creighton with a starting debut in sky blue this weekend, while  Wallaby Tane Edmed drops to the bench after the team’s winning start to 2025.

The Tahs got the better of the Highlanders on Valentine’s Day as they opened their season with a thrilling last-gasp win, and it was a similar story two weeks later as the hosts snatched a dramatic win over the Fijian Drua at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium.

But, ahead of their third match of the season, coach McKellar has opted for a change at fly-half, with Creighton stepping into the hot seat to face the Western Force. While Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii is still out, Creighton still has plenty of attacking weapons outside of him.

“Imagine poor Tane Edmed, for about the last six to nine months he’s been going to bed every night dreaming about throwing long spiral passes to Joseph Suaalii and now unfortunately he doesn’t get the chance to do that,” Shephard explained.

“The structure of the team, is that something that’s causing problems? Is it the style Dan McKellar’s brought? All I know is at the moment the Waratahs aren’t showing me enough to convince me that they’re the real deal in 2025.

“They’ve got no way of regenerating momentum and often it’s resulting in a pretty aimless, contestable kick that is either too long or it doesn’t have a good enough chase, and then it ends up putting them under pressure.

“For Lawson Creighton, it’s going to be really interesting to see what he can do in those situations.”