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Super Rugby Pacific

The Rug - Round 3 Super Rugby Preview


The Rug
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The Rug is New Zealand’s premier Super Rugby preview podcast. Join BK and Townley as they put forward this week’s best bets and gut instincts. Go well Punters.

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Former England coach Brian Smith dies aged 59

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Steve Borthwick makes 5 changes to his 2025/26 Elite Player Squad

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'Bit unfair': Bulls boss Johan Ackermann's vow before All Blacks clash

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All Blacks player ratings vs Sharks | Rugby's Greatest Rivalry 2026

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Dave Rennie not satisfied with All Blacks' first half as discipline issues persist

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Rennie shares update on Damian McKenzie's injury and Billy Proctor's replacement

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'The phoney war on the Greatest Rivalry tour is already gale-force in its intensity.'

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Matfield predicts Bok 10 call for All Blacks, but differs from Erasmus

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Latest Long Reads

LONG READ

One thing Les Kiss will like about his first Wallabies win - and three he won’t

The new Australia head coach started his tenure with a win, but several areas require improvement before they face Japan again.

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LONG READ

Why Rassie will be happier than Rennie with early omens of Greatest Rivalry tour

A stop-start, set-piece-based game like the Stormers tour opener will not suit the All Blacks if the pattern extends into the Test series.

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LONG READ

'The phoney war on the Greatest Rivalry tour is already gale-force in its intensity.'

A clash of styles is at the heart of The Greatest Rivalry and whoever prevails will set the tone for the short-term future of rugby

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Comments on RugbyPass

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PMcD 11 minutes ago
'The phoney war on the Greatest Rivalry tour is already gale-force in its intensity.'

That was the best performing AB’s front row in recent memory, with potentially Holland and Tuipulotu behind them - parity at best is likely for the first 40 mins and then the problems start (as they did last year).

The SA replacement scrum will likely be stronger - Steenekamp, Wessells, Louw, as will a likely 6|2 bench split, so there are reasons to expect a strong SB scurm with an AB scrum trying to put their replacement combination together, whilst bringing Holland & Scooter back up to speed.



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Bruiser 16 minutes ago
The locks and loose forwards are as good as New Zealand has had

Very selective comment on Aumoa’s throwing ….Taylor has had many dodgy patches with his lineout throwing. If Holland’s on the field, then Id probably hit the mark. The collective back row of this team are a work in progress and have promise. But comparing them to Z Brooke/Shelford/Jones/A Whetton/Brooke Cowden or Read/McCaw/Kaino/Vito/Messam ….nah dont think so

2 Go to comments
P
PMcD 26 minutes ago
Steve Borthwick makes 5 changes to his 2025/26 Elite Player Squad

England Rugby pay £150k to the players, which is effectively an offset by the Clubs, so they have to issue them for a full season to meet the salary cap once they offset £150k of their annual salary.

The EPS contract is an early warning system to confirm the level of muddling thinking by Borthwick around selection. It’s just a reminder this guy is totally out his depth at this level.



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R
Rabble 29 minutes ago
Hunter Paisami’s ‘better we are’ take on Wallabies midfield battle

I agree with your first 9 points! Not your last 3 though.

Beale has a better footy brain these days, but he’s lost his spark too much I feel.



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P
PMcD 31 minutes ago
Steve Borthwick makes 5 changes to his 2025/26 Elite Player Squad

Another round of EPS contracts that don’t really make sense.

England Rugby waited 5 years for BJvR, challenged his SA U20’s eligibility criteria, then failed to really play him when available and don’t give him an EPS contract, yet decided to give one to Henry Slade and Atkinson, who weren’t really first choice last season.



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N
NH 31 minutes ago
Seven clips the Wallabies will be analysing after another tight win over Japan

Ross looked out of depth defensively and unfit. I’d see what Kailea can do…

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N
NH 32 minutes ago
Seven clips the Wallabies will be analysing after another tight win over Japan

Fatigue doesnt’ just ‘happen’ after 60 minutes, its much more to do with ball in play time and the speed of ruck at any moment of the game. A perfectly fit and firing player can be gassed if they have to sprint, tackle, get up, ruck, sprint, tackle, ruck, repeat for 3 minutes plus across all parts of the field. This is exactly what happened in the leadup to Ito’s first try in the third clip. Notice it and the 2nd clip are both in the 11th minute and this was a particularly long, helter skelter period of play. Its no surprise props were tired around the ruck area, what was surprising was that given 2-3 opportunities to put it out, the wallabies instead decided to play on during this period and invite this style of play rather than opt to slow the game down. The WBs had the ball twice in this period (from memory), first time lonergan failed to find touch from a clearing box kick and the second time fraser quick tapped from his 22 after that ruck penalty shown at the end of clip 2.

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PickOllyMathisForAfricaTour,Dave 36 minutes ago
Matfield predicts Bok 10 call for All Blacks, but differs from Erasmus

SFM offers a massive point of difference to the other guys on attack he can just donthings other players cant do.

Sure he hasnt played a lot of footy recently but the Argentina test and training would have him ready, he might be slightly underdone for the first AB test but not to the point where Libbock or Pollard would be better options.



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N
NH 46 minutes ago
Seven clips the Wallabies will be analysing after another tight win over Japan

Nice one John. first of all well done on predicting many of these shifts pre-game 1, and secondly for the in-depth analysis, I particularly enjoy this format of article.

I think the counter rucking was a positive, particularly in that first~25 minutes of the game before they really fatigued and I thought they deserved a few more turnovers from it then they got. Hopefully they get a more favourable bounce of the ball this week and the post and pillar are more onto it. The only issue with it was that it didn’t seem to really slow the ruck down, it just created messy ball for japan which in this game helped in a way… I also liked the way in which the D line came up AND STAYED UP. It was by no means a rush defence, but its far better than under schmidt where they would too easily slide and soak, conceding easy metres. The shooting/one out stuff i’m a bit more questionable on but happy to give it a bit of time.



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c
cnw 1 hour ago
'Bit unfair': Bulls boss Johan Ackermann's vow before All Blacks clash

And why are they out anyway - yep understand those that had to travel to Argentina - but why not release those not travelling to play for Stormers and Sharks, especially those unlikely to make the match day 23.

31 Go to comments
T
Tooly 1 hour ago
Steve Borthwick makes 5 changes to his 2025/26 Elite Player Squad

Brian Smith was a VG Rugby man . As a player and a coach . Very astute .

I’m sorry to lose him .



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P
PMcD 1 hour ago
Why Rassie will be happier than Rennie with early omens of Greatest Rivalry tour

I think that’s fair but he does the hard yard stuff when he has to, I think he is deceptively strong because he’s still pretty good in the tackle and made his fair share last season in the bigger games. He’s just playing in teams where they have some exceptionally hard working players that does the work for him and he shines as a result in attack.

253 Go to comments
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Tooly 1 hour ago
Steve Borthwick makes 5 changes to his 2025/26 Elite Player Squad

There is one change England need .

Scott Robertson for Borthwick . They would be awesome .



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c
cnw 1 hour ago
'Bit unfair': Bulls boss Johan Ackermann's vow before All Blacks clash

Exactly. Hell the players will be climbing over each other to play. That’s the beauty of the NPC and Ranfurly shield. Provincial teams are primed to play these types of games even if the SR clubs are preseason.

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T
Tooly 1 hour ago
Hunter Paisami’s ‘better we are’ take on Wallabies midfield battle

PAISAMI is our best 12 by far .

FLOOK could also be VG .



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B
Bazzallina 1 hour ago
Dave Rennie not satisfied with All Blacks' first half as discipline issues persist

Don’t dog our weather to much Hammer lots of beautiful sunshine places here it’s why we produce plenty of wine from the Deep South to the North ( just not much on the Western sides ) most of the surfies where I live have dumped the hoods and booties last couple of weeks..temperate sub tropical is huge parts of the whenua

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c
cnw 1 hour ago
'Bit unfair': Bulls boss Johan Ackermann's vow before All Blacks clash

Spot on Drew.

31 Go to comments
P
PMcD 1 hour ago
Why Rassie will be happier than Rennie with early omens of Greatest Rivalry tour

It’s going to be very hard for Tosi to go against Ox, he would be better off the bench against Steenekamp. The AB’s just need to find a way of getting parity in the scrums, otherwise it’s going to be a tough few tests.

253 Go to comments
p
pc 1 hour ago
The locks and loose forwards are as good as New Zealand has had

I liked the jacomb cameo. Sure it was a beaten team but he slotted in confidently. And preston was impressive. Agree he seemed to just have a bit on ratima.

2 Go to comments
P
PMcD 1 hour ago
Why Rassie will be happier than Rennie with early omens of Greatest Rivalry tour

Great player - I remember when he went to Leicester and they had Kronfield, Neil Back & Lewis Moody as their 3 x 7’s - what a squad that team had back then. 🤣

253 Go to comments
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