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Super Rugby Pacific

The three big takeaways from round one of Super Rugby Australia

John Ferguson

Published: 2 hours ago | 13 September 2026 20:35 PDT
Updated: 2 hours ago | 13 September 2026 20:36 PDT

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - MAY 16: Miles Amatosero of the Waratahs looks dejected after defeat during the round fourteen Super Rugby Pacific match between Waratahs and Crusaders at Allianz Stadium, on May 16, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe Photography/Getty Images)

For anyone who has doubted the validity and purpose of this competition, round-1 of the Super Rugby AUS 2026 has surely put all that to bed.

Getting crowds to Bungendore to watch the NSW Waratahs take on the ACT Brumbies and having people watching Wallabies play in rural New South Wales, or for free on YouTube, are huge positives for rugby lovers.

The same must have been felt to watch Wallaby-flyhalf hopeful Tom Lynagh run out for his first solid bit of footy all year at Ballymore for the Queensland Reds hosting the Western Force.

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While the cohesion and flow of play left a little to be desired across the weekend, it nonetheless highlighted how badly these players need game time.

If Australian rugby wants to see quicker improvements at the higher levels, this next generation and tier of player need to be playing more rugby as a unit at higher levels; it is as simple as that.

Now, while the results went against the Queenslanders at home as well as the Brums in Bungendore, there was plenty of talent on show for all fans across the weekend.

Where have all the tall men gone?

At Ballymore, the Western Force fielded a second row that was propped up by regular back-rower Will Harris, while the Reds fielded an inexperienced duo in Charlie Brosnan and Will Ross.

The Reds are, of course, missing Wallaby duo Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and Josh Canham, as well as recently departed Seru Uru, who filled their lock stock in Super Rugby Pacific this year.

The Western Force are waiting on recruit and former Melbourne Rebels Trevor Hosea to recover from a knee injury he suffered in the Shute Shield semi-final.

Down in Bungendore, Brumbies captain Toby McPherson and newly capped Wallaby Miles Amatosero were the only Super Rugby Pacific locks who fronted up in the contest, and it showed.

McPherson and Amatosero went toe-to-toe for almost the entire 80 minutes, with both of them smashing rucks in back-to-back efforts, making big tackles, and organising their teams; their standard was well and truly above the rest.

The Brumbies were without 32-capped Wallaby Nick Frost due to a wedding, and the Waratahs are without regular skipper Matt Philip due to injury.

While the Waratahs and the Brumbies have a bunch of decorated Shute Shield or John I Dent Cup players coming through the ranks, it is nonetheless clear that Super Rugby Pacific-level locks do not grow on trees.

Hosea is a great get for the Force, but they have just lost Wallabies Darcy Swain and Sam Carter, as well as Argentinian Franco Molina in one off-season.

The Waratahs have let go of Ben Grant and Wallaby Angus Blyth.

The Reds lost a host of regular back-five players at the end of 2025, none more prominent than regular starter and hardman Ryan Smith.

Add Izack Rodda, Adam Coleman, Kane Douglas, Tom Staniforth, the Arnold brothers, Will Skelton, and they are just the headliners.

This list is all to say that Australia has been bleeding genuine, big hard men for far too long, and it must stop.

While the Force and Brums will have a few back in the coming weeks, it is clear that behind the current Wallaby contingent, the ranks are razor thin.

The next generation of talent is making its mark

Backrow has always been a point of strength for Australian rugby, and the showings in Super Rugby AUS last weekend were no different.

Eli Langi at no.6 and Oscar Cleary at no.8 for the Brumbies, Marshall Le Maitre at no.7 and Justice Taumoepeau at no.6 for the Waratahs were industrious, skillful, and plenty physical.

No one hit harder than young Cleary on the day, and few were as damaging as Langi and 18-year-old Taumoepeau with the ball in hand.

Le Maitre was a bloodhound at the breakdown and regularly won his side the pilfer turnovers.

Openside flanker Tom Robinson for Queensland continued his hot streak of form from leading the U20 Wallabies in Georgia earlier in the year, and Josh Takai at no.12 showed he can be a handful with the ball in hand.

Western Force no.8 Jackson Iose was abrasive and throwing all caution to the wind at breakdown time, and Albert Alcock off the bench has shown what time in the academy and wider squad has done for him physically; he ploughed over for the match-winner in extra time.

Destined future stars like Wallace Charlie for the Force, Will McCulloch for the Reds and Brumbies openside flanker TJ Tlaileva will all get more time to show their wares after quiet performances.

Waratahs winger Latrell Smiler Ah-Kiong proved to be a slippery customer in the no.14 jersey, and Angus Grover showed he could bring speed of service from the base as the reserve halfback.

Seeing this next generation of talent take their strong club and academy form into this competition just reinforces how important this competition is.

This comp needs to be extended one way or another

We have mentioned the fresh young bucks who put their stamp on the weekend’s games, but that’s only one side of the coin.

As already mentioned, getting Amatosero and McPherson big minutes instead of training is vital for high performance.

While the youngsters were putting on a show, comparatively experienced heads like Lington Ieli, Liam Bowron, and Rhys Van Nek were putting on a clinic at the scrum in Bungendore.

Tom Lambert got to showcase his carrying, and Ethan Dobbins got valuable minutes back from his mid-season injury.

The Brumbies backline, which was essentially a full-strength Super Rugby Pacific backline, needed a hitout, clearly, and the likes of Max Burey, Teddy Wilson, and Sid Harvey showed why they are at the next level.

Up at Ballymore, Zac Lomax made his long-awaited return from injury to play his first game at no.13, which, one way or the other, was useful for the Force as well as Wallaby selectors.

Boston Fakafonua at no.12 and Ronan Leahy at no.14 are two SRP-capped youngsters who will be required to really step up in SRP in 2027, and they showed the physical jump will be manageable now.

Probably no more important minutes were put in than the ones put into the fly-halves in Brisbane, Harry McLaughlin-Phillips and Lynagh; both had decent games without blowing the spectators away.

Having this competition running is vital for budding fly-halves and gamedrivers at halfback; they get used to the speed, intensity, and physicality of the next level.

The only sour note is that the competition only has three more weeks, two more round games and a final; that is not enough game time for these genuine Super Rugby Pacific players to turn down NPC or other gigs in the future.

Australian rugby needs the Lamberts, Van Neks, Amatoseros, HMPs, Jarrah McLeods, Joe Brials, John Bryants, George Blakes, of the world to play much more high-level rugby, because they are the backbone of the full-time Super Rugby programs, and without them improving and performing, Australian rugby will continue to suffer.

Everything comes down to money, but if there was a time to invest and when there is some money around, then it is now.

There was a windfall after the British and Irish Lions Tests in 2025, and there’s guaranteed revenue from the home Rugby World Cup in 2027.

Invest now so that 2031 in the USA is built on a higher base.

Comments

2 Comments

Two Cents 51 mins ago

If they start small just by increasing the comp to one home and one away game for each of the three match ups that currently exist, then that will give the management an opportunity to see how viable further expansion in the future might be.

In the past they've expanded way too fast and been too impatient to see immediate results at this intermediate level which has resulted in too many failed ventures.

Identity isn't built over night and it takes a while for people to take ownership of something new unless they already have some basis for connection to it and even then.

Virtually all of the rugby clubs that currently exist across the country have been there for more than a century.

But the imposition of commercial entities above and over them which share no cultural or tribal connection to these clubs are always going to fail, as we have seen time and time again.

That is ultimately why it has taken so long for the Force to become a decent team and why the Rebels collapsed.

Returning to Victoria at a competitive level is vital for Australian rugby at some point due to how much of a talent nursery it has become. But again it needs to be managed properly, not simply flown in.

First, slowly expand the current SRA comp. Add first an additional game and then maybe start to look at what additional teams you could introduce such as country or academy sides to grow the competition.

Focus on the heartlands to start with since that will tell you whether having more sides is even a viable concern or not.

Then look to re include Victoria and expand the game in the west with additional teams. And maybe eventually look to adding teams from outside the traditional pathways, maybe a domestic Indigenous side, a domestic Pasifika side, some teams from NT, SA and Tassie as well.

There are viable prospects but it has to be managed properly from the start, not just set up like a commercial pop up and then be expected to function like the already established organisations do.

It doesn't work that way as the myriad failures to a national domestic competition have well and truly proven.

If people have a feeling of connection to something, then the support base will grow organically and that's the strongest most enduring way to build something commercially viable.

Rugby has existed in every corner of Australia since it was first established as a nation so you don't actually have to work that hard to get people interested in the game.

But you can't simply bring in a “foreign” entity and think any local is going to have any value for it.

Both the ARC and NRC failed because the majority of the rep teams were composed of Shute Shield and Hospital Cup players from Brisbane and Sydney.

So of course no one in Perth or Melbourne was going to care about the teams carrying their branding because they featured no one that they knew or followed.

The Spirit folded and was never revisited. The Rebels struggled for several years to build something and then finally got rescued by being developed into a full blown SR franchise.

That led to an injection of PE but it was never something that was going to be something that could be sustained as they just didn't have any public profile and market influence.

It's good that the Victorian government cares about sports because without their continued support of Rugby Victoria the pathways systems that have been built there would cease to exist, depriving Australian rugby of a vital talent factory. As soon as practicable, Victorian sides need to be reinstituted into SRA and SRW.

It's going to take a lot of hard work and it won't be cheap but it just needs to be done. More needs to be done to support WA as well and at some point rugby needs to be expanded elsewhere.

As a sport with a genuine international level of competition, it's kind of embarrassing that the game is only viably competitively played in one part of the country.

We want rugby to be a proper national sport that every Australian feels the same way about as they feel about our Olympics and Comm Games teams.

The only way to achieve that is to help people feel ownership of it, where they can't help but find themselves cheering when they see men and women in gold running out there even if they don't really understand the sport they're watching.

All that they need to know is that Australia is competing and has a chance to win. And by extension if it's a NSW or QLD or WA or VIC side or whoever it is, that it's their own community that they're backing. That's what gets people invested and makes them want to support it.

Scrubbadub 1 hr ago

Thanks for the article Fergo, feel like my big takeaway was that Max Burey has all the ingredients to be the flyhalf we need. Great ball playing decisions, turn of pace, physically looks solid and reliable. Hopefully selectors were watching. He was best on field for me. Hopefully Cheika develops him well.

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