Waratahs and Brumbies start Super Rugby Pacific in perfect style

Following last week’s theme of ‘must start well’, the NSW Waratahs and ACT Brumbies have done everything asked of them and plenty more to kick off the Super Rugby Pacific season.

The Waratahs started their campaign with an impressive 36-12 thumping of the injury-hit Queensland Reds on Friday night, and the Brumbies played the patient game before recording a 56-24 demolition of the Western Force in Perth.

With the bonus point wins, the teams occupy the top two spots in the table. And yes, that doesn’t mean much after one game, and you don’t win titles in February, and neither team is getting ahead of themselves. We know all this and heard both coaches say it. Perhaps it was actually the way they won that grabbed everyone’s attention, though.

The ‘Tahs had to withstand Queensland fightbacks twice in the first half, and both times took a few periods of possession to regain composure, answer and cancel out the momentum. The Brumbies basically didn’t have the ball for the first quarter of their match and were forced into a game of patience.

Once each had a firm grip on their contest, it soon became a question of by how much would they win.

Waratahs hype could become self-sustaining

Fans of the other Australian sides will always be amused by the annual line of commentary around the Waratahs, where even if nothing has changed from one season to the next, this is suddenly the year when the ‘Tahs will definitely click. #FebruaryChampions exists for a reason.

At least coming into the 2026 season, there have been plenty of personnel changes and the light at the end of the tunnel does appear to be getting brighter.

The nature of their curtain-raising win will do nothing but boost team and supporter confidence. NSW left the door open for the Reds at half-time but wore them down early in the second half before blowing them away with three tries in the last 14 minutes.

More than a few supporters and spectators would have asked the ‘is this going to be our year?’ question as they left the new Sydney Football Stadium. That’s an important point in itself. If punters believe this is going to be the Waratahs year, then they’ll be back this Friday night and for more home games to come. They might even bring mates with them.

 

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Hype, therefore, is actually good business. The more the hype train gathers steam, the more interest there will be in their games, and the higher their crowds will be. A strong Waratahs is good for Super Rugby, remember?

Which brings us to Max Jorgensen, who scored an exceptional one-on-one try just before half-time, and then finished an opportune piece of play for the second-last, match-sealing score of the game. They were highlights shared widely through the social and online channels, and featured throughout the weekend news bulletins.

“Oh yeah, well you’re a fan, aren’t you. Like everyone else,” Waratahs coach Dan McKellar said, almost in disbelief, answering a question post-match of what he does when Jorgensen finds himself in a little bit of space.

“He’s a unique talent to score that try, against some quality defenders.

“All I want for Jorgo, is to play game on game on game, because if Jorgo’s playing the majority of the season with a few other players that are important there as well, he’ll produce more moments like that.

“And that’s what we need. If we want to try and get 30-35,000 people here, the Max Jorgensens of the world will certainly help that, because they’re players you want to watch live.”

This puts Jorgensen in the crosshairs of opposition defenders and club accountants alike, but if he’s going to finish half-chances like he did on Friday, the team will quickly learn that’s all he needs to pounce.

Like always – and McKellar was almost apologetic when leaning on the ‘one game at a time’ cliché post-match – the Waratahs next big challenge is to play that well again this week. Too many times in their history they’ve not been able to back up strong performances, but this feels like too good a squad to make that mistake.

Particularly when there’s a hype train to feed.

Brumbies academy graduates show any dip might be short-lived

Life after Len Ikitau, Tom Hooper, and Noah Lolesio might be alright for the Brumbies after all, if Saturday night’s record win is anything to go by.

Many have opined in recent weeks the Wallaby trio were the players the Brumbies could least afford to lose at the end of 2025, but this performance proved the worth of their famed academy.

Stephen Larkham has noted several times over the past few weeks that of their nine off-season squad additions, only former Waratah Tane Edmed hadn’t come through their in-house programem. Of the eight who had, seven made their senior Brumbies debut during Super Rugby AUS in September.

Two of this group made impressive Super Rugby Pacific bows in Perth – back-row Toby Macpherson and tighthead Tevita Alatini – and both will play plenty more games in 2026.

Charlie Cale got all the headlines out of the Brumbies’ biggest ever win in the West, and deservedly so after showing what has been missing for so long. A crippling run of injuries meant Cale has played only a handful of games in the last 18 months, so to see him striding away and reminding everyone how surprisingly quick he is brought a lot of joy to Brumbies teammates, supporters and coaches alike.

Elsewhere, another couple of academy grads, lock Lachie Shaw and outside centre Kadin Pritchar, were excellent as well, with Shaw running a well-oiled lineout in just his 18^th game, and Pritchard in just his second giving plenty of glimpses of another very special talent in the number 13 jersey.

Neither were perfect, and Larkham admitted Pritchard particularly will look back on a couple of turnovers for obvious lessons, but the bigger story here is of a couple of young players brought up through a system that has them ready to go by the time they come into the senior team.

The debate can continue around the relative strengths of the 2026 squad vs 2025, but the current crop is already getting on with the job of being well-equipped to continue the Brumbies tradition of playing finals rugby.

Force were very comfortable on top – until they suddenly weren’t

The Brumbies led 14-10 at half-time, despite having just 36% of first-half possession and 28% of territory. And those figures only reached those heights after the Brumbies managed to have possession for most of the last 10 minutes of the half.

Ben Donaldson kicked a penalty for the Force to least 10-0 after 22 minutes, and when Cale scored the first of his two tries a minute later, it became immediately apparent the Force really should have had a lot more to show for dominating the first quarter.

The Force were twice held up over the line – Carlo Tizzano both times – either side of Vaiolini Ekuasi’s try in the sixth minute, but for all their possession and opportunity, 10 points was the most they could manage. By the time they did find a second try, the Brumbies had already pencilled in a bonus point.

One loss doesn’t put a line through the Western Force for the year, but being able to convert opportunity into points has to be a lesson learned quickly.

And after the Blues went into full arm wrestle mode to stay within arm’s reach of the Chiefs, the Force’s job gets no easier in round two.

The one thing even a weakened Queensland have to fix

The Reds went into the season opener missing upwards of a dozen injured players, and the vast majority of them would have made the matchday 23 if fit. That alone will give the young side that went down to the Waratahs some degree of exemption from overly harsh scrutiny.

But there was still one particular line on the stats sheet Les Kiss will have to address over this bye week: 17 penalties conceded.

It’s just way too many. Ten of them were in their own half, gifting the Waratahs free opportunities throughout the game to mount further attack, and add to the Reds’ defensive requirements which already had them making 40% more tackles than NSW.

On the plus side, a bye in round two does give Queensland some bonus preparation time, and even though coaches tend to hate early byes, Kiss conceded post-match it probably wasn’t a bad thing this time around. It may allow some recovery time for a few on the injured list, too.

The Reds were arguably Australia’s biggest disappointment on the opening weekend, but it’s also way too early to write off a team who will definitely be there at the pointy end.