Derbies, trans-Tasman rivals, and a new flavour: Why Super Rugby Pacific can work

Super Rugby has undergone a dramatic makeover for the third time in as many years but Rugby Australia bosses and their New Zealand counterparts are hopeful they've finally found a model that works.

It has been almost two years since the COVID-19 pandemic forced international borders shut and left Australia and New Zealand to play domestic competitions before they took a small step towards normality last year.

Now it has paved the way for a new era with Super Rugby Pacific set to kick off against a backdrop of COVID-19 uncertainty.

Brumbies coach Dan McKellar puts it simply: it's "a proper Super Rugby competition, and one I suppose a lot of us have been wanting for a long time".

Five Australian teams, five New Zealand teams and two new additions in Moana Pasifika and Fijian Drua means the early morning wake-up call to watch your favourite team play in South Africa is a thing of the past.

There are no conferences, no home finals gifted to teams who finished with less competition points than some of their other rivals. Perhaps the only gripe with the format is eight out of 12 teams will feature in a sudden-death finals series.

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Rugby Australia chief executive Andy Marinos says this is "the best possible competition" on offer, hopeful it can be the start of something special for the code.

"Obviously it's a big departure, not having South Africa and Argentina playing at this point, but it is a fantastic opportunity now to really grow rugby in the Pacific, and also for us preparing men and women for World Cups. You want to be playing in the best possible competition," Marinos said at the Super Rugby Pacific season launch.

"When we look at rugby in Australia over the next 10 years, it's got a really beautiful horizon with a lot of major events coming through, and that's something we've got to look forward to and celebrate."

It's the hottest ticket in Australian rugby.

The rivalry between the Brumbies and the Queensland Reds has been the backbone of Super Rugby AU, and those two sides again loom as Australia's greatest hopes in the new competition.

Officials have placed a greater emphasis on derby matches, with Australian officials hoping to capitalise on the rivalry that lured 41,637 through the gates for last year's AU final in Brisbane.

Teams will play eight teams once and three teams twice with a focus on derby matches, and White is already counting down the days until the Brumbies get another shot at the Reds.

"They're pretty much possible-probable spots for a Wallabies jersey. They have been one versus two. They've been rematches of finals, previews of finals," White said.

"Every single one of them keeps going down to the bloody wire. Unfortunately last year we happened to be on the wrong side of it three times. We know it has been bloody close between us. There's also just a little bit more in those games, a bit more spice, a bit of emotion as well. People love to see that.

"Everyone knows about it. We know we got it over them two years ago, they got it over us last year. It's always been Tah week down here, that's always been a really big one. Now we've got the Reds derby as well, it's had a lot of spice the past two years.

"There's two local derbies that have got a fair bit about them at the moment, and you don't have to talk about them too much during the week. There's a lot of boys from NSW or Queensland here that want to get one over them, there's been close games, close finals, there's not much more that needs to go into the game in terms of emotion.

"If anything, we need to wind back during the week. I'm getting fired up now and it's still weeks away, you know what I mean? They're the ones you grow up wanting to play in."

It's the number every Australian coach and player wants to reverse.

Australian teams managed just two wins from 25 games played in last year's Trans-Tasman competition, as New Zealand franchises continued their run of dominance.

Reversing the trend looms as a tall order but there is little doubt a competition featuring teams from both countries is the way forward. A five-team domestic tournament works for a little while, but it threatens to become stale.

Consistently winning games against Kiwi teams looms as the biggest challenge for any Australian side in Super Rugby Pacific, but McKellar is confident the Brumbies have what it takes "to beat anyone".

"I am. I think you always need a little bit of luck with injury, and ideally the work we've done over the past few months has set us up to be strong and robust and able to deal with Super Rugby from one week to the next," McKellar said.

"Australia never has and probably never will have the same depth New Zealand teams have, but we know if we can rotate our squad smartly and keep our group as healthy as possible, then at our best we can beat anyone.

"That's been shown, even last year in the Trans-Tasman when we went to Christchurch and played against the Crusaders, we were a decision away from a really famous win there. We're quietly confident, but we're just focused on Sunday for now."

All Blacks great Andrew Mehrtens says Australian teams will back themselves against the Kiwis, so much so that New Zealand teams will "have to be a little more circumspect this year because they don't want to have loose moments".

"The Australian teams came up last year, they will have got a lot of encouragement from the way they went against the New Zealand teams. Where we might have thought it was going to be a complete walkover, there were some really good games," Mehrtens said at the season launch.

"They'll fancy themselves, these Australian teams, against the New Zealand sides. I think we're going to see a lot more even competition."

Moana Pasifika and Fijian Drua could carve out legacies unlike any other Super Rugby team - but Mehrtens has a warning for anyone banking on short-term success.

"We've got to have reasonable expectations, and that's not setting high expectations in terms of results," Mehrtens said.

"I think [Moana coach] Aaron Mauger will be setting goals around the cohesion within the team, the understanding. He's bringing together a lot of different players. They might have a common cultural theme, but a lot of them won't have played together.

"They're up against established franchises with established processes and pathways, and understanding amongst their players. That's so important, the combinations in Super Rugby, because it's the blowtorch that gets applied to a team and any cracks in the communication or the understanding really get shown up. It's something to build for the future."

Building a new team from the ground up in the midst of a global pandemic looms as an incredible challenge, but Moana have lured Test-capped players Sekope Kepu, Christian Leali'ifano and Jack Lam to lead the charge. The Drua bring Test experience of their own to the fold.

Pasifika will be based in New Zealand, the Drua playing out of Australia, with their inclusion vital to enhancing and developing pathways in the Pacific islands.

"They're going to bring a point of difference," Marinos said.

"In saying that, it's going to be a hard transition as we've seen in the previous iterations of Super Rugby where new teams have come in."

Noah Lolesio's pre-season ultimatum went a little pear-shaped.

Out of favour at Test level, Brumbies flyhalf Lolesio was told to get a full Super Rugby pre-season under his belt and add some size before the new year, but then he was rushed onto a plane to answer an SOS from the injury-riddled Wallabies on their Spring Tour.

But McKellar says Lolesio ripped right into training upon his return to Canberra, ready to put what he learnt from Wallabies playmaker Quade Cooper into action in a bid to eventually reclaim Australia's No. 10 jersey.

"It's been a fair career, or an accelerated career, up until this point in time. He was playing NRC and then was playing Super Rugby, then all of a sudden he has played 10 or so Test matches and the majority of them have been against the All Blacks," McKellar said.

"If you look through the Wallabies' really positive passages of play last year against the French, and even against the All Blacks, Noah was heavily involved in a lot of them. Like any young player, he's going to make some mistakes and learn from them. I know that's really important to him.

"He's said himself he has probably been a little bit too obsessed with rugby, training and playing, and he needs a little bit more balance in his life. That will allow him to be a better player on a Friday or a Saturday night. I'm not going to put a huge amount of pressure on Noah, he's just got to do his job.

"I know he learnt a lot last year just watching and observing Quade. How Quade controlled the game and put us in the right areas of the field, Noah would have learnt a lot from that and Quade was certainly very good to him as a mentor. What I'm looking for is just a little bit of growth and development in his own game, and just for him to enjoy his footy."

Christian Leali'ifano wishes his father Tavita could be here to see this.

Leali'ifano hopes he can inspire a generation as Moana Pasifika's franchise player leading into their Super Rugby Pacific debut in 2022, and perhaps force his way into Wallabies contention at 34.

The veteran playmaker turned down a chance to return to the Brumbies - adamant he didn't want to stand in the way of players like Noah Lolesio, Irae Simone and Len Ikitau - to pay tribute to his Samoan heritage for a new team

"It's going to be weird playing against him. Understanding the reasons why he decided to go to Moana is unique and special in itself. I'm sure his family are definitely proud," Alaalatoa said.

"I know his heart is still with the Brumbies, and he always cares for the Brumbies because he spent a large amount of time here and there was a lot of energy he gave to the club.

"We're trying to continue on the legacy he left behind for us, so it's going to be weird playing against him, but it's awesome to see him continue to go around and play his rugby."

Roger Tuivasa-Sheck has a Dally M medal and an NRL premiership ring to his name, but now he is starting all over again.

The former rugby league star has joined the Auckland Blues with an eye on forcing his way into the All Blacks squad for the 2023 World Cup.

But how he adapts to the 15-man code remains to be seen with Tuivasa-Sheck poised to shift into the centres after making his name as a fullback and winger in a past life.

"I think that it's still too early for me," Tuivasa-Sheck said when asked whether he feels like a union player yet.

"I keep telling myself it's not until I lace up and I run out in the colours that it's going to feel official and at the moment I feel like just a rookie and I'm learning with everyone around me.

"It's funny. It's just totally different to be honest, coming in this level. Playing back in school, it's different. It's hard sort of bringing back those sort of skills that I had back in high school to this level. Probably the other tough part is trying to break my league habits in this environment."

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