LONG READ Western Force and ACT Brumbies looking for signs of progress in Super Rugby Pacific

At the start of the Super Rugby Pacific season, Australian rugby fans mull the burning questions like who reach the grand final? Who will miss out under the new six-team format?  Who will be the big improvers? And who will finish higher than last season? The list goes on.

The loss of the Melbourne Rebels has cast a heavy shadow over the off-season, with the consolidation of five teams strengthening depth in the remaining four squads, and with it, the driving of expectations around who will finish where.

Certainly, it appears very clear that the big winners from this painful process have been the Queensland Reds and New South Wales Waratahs.

Queensland, with an already strong squad, added Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, Josh Canham, and Matt Gibbon to fill important holes in their forward pack, while also adding outside backs Filipo Daugunu and Lachie Anderson.

Salakaia-Loto, Canham, and Daugunu all played Test Rugby in 2024, Anderson went on the Australia A tour to England late in the year, and Gibbon added the most recent of his six Test caps in 2023.

NSW’s rebuild under new coach Dan McKellar was outlined in last week’s column, where he outlined his readiness to not just drive the Waratahs back to the finals, but for all the expectation that has come with the impressive off-season of recruitment.

The Reds have similar levels of increased expectation in front of them in 2025. Their squad now contains upwards of 20 capped Wallabies, Australia A representatives, or training squad inclusions as a minimum. They must now be considered the strongest of the Australian sides.

After finishing fifth last season and strengthening in key areas, they should be eyeing off a top two finish from the squad they’ve assembled. Anything less will be a disappointment. Therefore the pressure is on to start the season well.

Away from the spotlight, the ACT Brumbies and Western Force have ripped into off-seasons themselves, even making a few important additions each. They’ve quietly improved their lists, and are more than happy to head into Round 1 this weekend coming in that perfect cliched coaching location: under the radar.

I think all the Australian teams are going to be better this season, with the Rebels players being distributed around the Australian teams.

Stephen Larkham, ACT Brumbies head coach

But, it seems the rules of being under the radar are similar to the first rule of Fight Club.

“Part of being under the radar is that you don’t talk about being under the radar,” Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham laughed, to this writer’s question of the Brumbies being more than happy to sit back and let the Reds and Waratahs take all the pre-season headlines in Australia.

“I think all the Australian teams are going to be better this season, with the Rebels players being distributed around the Australian teams,” Larkham said of the increased expectations of sides in 2025. “I think that’s making the Australian teams stronger.”

“We’re certainly noticed that with the Rebels players we’ve got, they’ve brought really good attitude and intensity to our training, and they’ve got a really good skillset. The other teams would be the same.”

There’s a bit of bigger picture vision in Larkham’s observation, though. At the point the Rebels players became available, the Brumbies already had upwards of thirty players contracted for 2025, and promotion of young academy players already in progress. They were never really in the frame to pick up any of the big names that quickly found their way to Brisbane or Sydney.

“Going from five teams back to four has certainly strengthened depth in every team which gives us no doubt a better chance of Super Rugby success, but also a better chance of finding some combinations that are actually going to be working together in Super Rugby that can then hopefully transfer and boost the Wallabies’ performances and their chances of winning,” he explained.

On the other side of Australia, the Western Force have similarly been quietly accumulating talent.

Simon Cron explained to me that while the Rebels situation allowed extra opportunity to acquire some depth they might not have been thinking about previously, the Force spent the back end of 2024 continuing the work they’ve been doing since he arrived in Perth 18 months ago.

I think over the last two seasons it’s been a massive shift, even for us, around being team first people in our environment and guys who are driven to be successful.

Simon Cron, Western Force head coach

“Well, for us it’s about who we are and what we want to do,” he explained.

“It was definitely different when the Rebels obviously changed in the placement of those players. But all we can control is who we are and what we do.

“And we’ve got some cool people in our environment too, which we’re really enjoying. And I think over the last two seasons it’s been a massive shift, even for us, around being team first people in our environment and guys who are driven to be successful. So, it’s been quite a change for us.”

Wallabies and former Waratahs Harry Johnson-Holmes and Dylan Pietsch lead the ‘ins’ columns for the Force, along with Darcy Swain from the Brumbies, Mac Grealy from Queensland, and former Rebels Vaiolini Ekuasi, Divad Palu, and Matt Proctor. Brandon Paenga-Amosa and Nick Champion de Crespigny arrived back in Australia from France, Tom Robertson returns from an Oxford sabbatical, while Eddie Jones-capped one-Test England hooker Nic Dolly has returned home to Australia in a bid to play for the Wallabies.

“It’s about us putting a team together that people in Perth can be proud of,” Cron says, expanding on his point about wanting to make the Western Force a genuine destination club, and not just a post of last resort.

“A group of guys who have chosen that to be their Super Rugby team and to be successful in it. And to do that, you’ve got to be pretty hard-nosed around who we’re bringing in. And I think the first thing that they’ve got to tick the box on is that they’re team first.

“And that will help us with long-term change.”

The plans for 2025 have suffered an early setback, however, with Johnson-Holmes going down with what looked very much like a serious knee injury in the warm-up ahead of the Force’s one and only trial game against the Brumbies in Canberra last Friday. Coming off two Achilles injuries in three seasons, it would be a bitter pill for the popular prop.

The Force had enjoyed their best Wallabies representation in years, if not ever, with seven players selected among the 48 players used by Joe Schmidt

By year’s end, the Force had enjoyed their best Wallabies representation in years, if not ever, with seven players selected among the 48 players used by Joe Schmidt in 2024. Their delayed return to Force pre-season has been a learning experience across the board: for the coaches, the squad players who began pre-season training back in October, and for the Wallabies players themselves.

“Funnily enough, it was actually more than anything trying to hold them back a little bit,” Cron says, of the delicate reintroduction of the players after returning from their prescribed time off after the November Internationals. “But they were ready to go too, so that’s cool.”

“When they come back into our environment, a lot of our guys haven’t had Wallabies coming back into an environment. And vice versa, the Wallabies had to get used to coming back into a suburban environment and making sure that’s cohesive. And everyone understands how the people have been leading [in their absence].

“But it’s been really good for us. It’s worked really well.”

Cron is looking forward to hosting Moana Pasifika in Perth on Saturday evening, and relishes the prospect of starting the season well against a Moana side that has enjoyed a busy off-season themselves, headlined by the recruitment of All Blacks captain, Ardie Savea.

To get there, Cron wants his squad to just get in and do unremarkable rugby things really well.

“There’s some DNA in the organisation that we look back on and we’d love to reciprocate,” he says. “That’s unwavering grit. We’re just a team that won’t go away, just keep coming, keep coming, keep coming.

“I think you’ll see some X-factor from us this year around innovation. We have to be smart the way we play, but we have to dominate the brilliant basics.

“I think last year, probably there were times where we went rocks or diamonds. Run down the edge, throw the ball away. We have to be brilliant at the basics.

“And what that looks like for us is catch, pass, running lines, breakdown, set piece. We have to be stronger at it so we can compete with the top teams, which I think we are heading there.

“We don’t need to score every phase, and I think sometimes last year we started to overplay a little bit. But I think now the boys have been together a year longer, plus the guys we’ve brought in. They’re pretty clear on what we need to do and where we need to go.

“I’m just excited to get our boys on the field, to be honest. The boys learn from playing, and they’ll learn from the game a lot.

Simon Cron

“And every week it’s about performance.”

Start the season well, and neither the Brumbies nor the Force will remain under the radar for long. Expectations in Australia is for four well-performed sides to be not just testing, but beating their New Zealand counterparts each week. Cron can’t wait to finally put all the pre-season work into action.

“I’m just excited to get our boys on the field, to be honest. The boys learn from playing, and they’ll learn from the game a lot. And they’ll take a lot out of it.

“So it’s about getting better and better every week, and just going at it for the rest of the season.”