Sam BruceApr 13, 2026, 10:28 AM

CloseSam was brought up on long drives and the dusty fields of north-west New South Wales, where he developed his love of rugby from an early age. He joined ESPN after a five-year stint heading up Fox Sports Australia’s digital rugby coverage.

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Round 9 of Super Rugby Pacific produced three thrillers, while the Hurricanes underlined their status as competition favourites with yet another magnificent attacking display for a fifth straight win.

They were joined as weekend victors by the Brumbies, Chiefs, Fijian Drua and Reds.

HISTORY AWAITS THE BRUMBIES — IF THEY’RE GOOD ENOUGH

The Brumbies could do something special in Super Rugby Pacific, but they have one huge obstacle standing in their way.

In the 30-year history of Super Rugby, no Australian team has even swept the five New Zealand sides in the same season. But following their dogged 14-10 win over the Highlanders, Stephen Larkham’s side have set themselves up for a crack at that incredible feat.

The only issue is that the Hurricanes look imperious right now, the Kiwis’ 42-19 crushing of the second-placed Blues arguably more impressive than any of the even greater annihilations of the Waratahs, Reds or Highlanders.

More on the Canes shortly. But first back to the Brumbies’ win in Dunedin.

For a lot of this match, the ACT were poor. The Highlanders weren’t much better, but eventually the Brumbies found a way to win, just as they had against the Blues and Chiefs earlier in the year.

There were curious decisions to kick for the corner to set up a rolling maul, and then throw to the very front, twice, to immediately negate any chance of a lineout drive. Earlier, the Brumbies never really found any attacking rhythm in the face of a rushing Highlanders defensive line.

The Brumbies celebrate their win over the Highlanders in Dunedin Joe Allison/Getty Images

In the end, it was the work of super-sub Luke Reimer, and the rest of the Brumbies pack, that got the two-time Super Rugby champions over the line.

Reimer’s late five-pointer mean the Brumbies have now come from behind inside the final 10 in each their victories over the Blues, Chiefs and Highlanders, having not played anywhere near as well as they did in their complete evisceration of the Crusaders way back in Round 2.

And it will take a performance of that same quality to beat the Hurricanes in Christchurch in two weeks’ time, so good have the Wellington outfit been this season.

Unfortunately for the Brumbies, their home defeats by the Reds and Waratahs may eventually end up costing them a top-two finish. That is unless they do something remarkable in Round 11, which is a result not beyond them if they can rediscover the form they showed in Christchurch earlier in the year – and the Canes suddenly hit a speedbump on road to the title that right now may as well be the Autobahn.

HIGHLANDERS RIGHT TO BEMOAN LATE YELLOW CARD

While the Brumbies’ never-say-die mindset, something skipper Ryan Lonergan referenced post-match, is the hallmark of their season, the visitors were the beneficiaries of a controversial yellow card with 10 minutes to play.

Highlanders replacement hooker Henry Bell was sent to the sin-bin after the TMO informed referee Ben O’Keeffe that there had been head-on-head contact with Brumbies lock Nick Frost. The only issue was that Frost appeared to duck his head at the final moment before contact and was as much at fault as Bell for the contact.

But given Bell was upright at the point of the tackle, and the responsibility lies with the defender, O’Keeffe deemed the high contact worthy of a 10-minute spell and a TMO review.

It’s just whether any mitigation should have been applied; or if there is a bigger question here for World Rugby to rule on when it comes to the ball-carrier leading into contact with their head.

What made the Frost decision even tougher to swallow for the Highlanders was that only minutes earlier, O’Keeffe deemed that Brumbies prop Blake Schoupp had shown enough of a wrapping action to avoid a yellow card of his own for a tackle on Mitchell Dunshea.

O’Keeffe said he “did not see it as a lifting tackle”, that it was “momentum” that saw Dunshea cartwheel into the air, and that Schoupp was both not on the ground at the time of the tackle and had shown a “clear wrap”.

There was at least consistency in the adjudication of the tackle across the weekend, after referee Angus Gardner made the same call for a near-identical incident during the Reds’ win over the Crusaders.

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HURRICANES ARE A JOY TO WATCH – AND CLEARLY THE TEAM TO BEAT

The Hurricanes welcomed the Blues to Hnry Stadium on Saturday evening with some questions remaining as to whether they really deserved their spot on top of the Super Rugby ladder.

That was on account of a softer draw for the first half of the season, which had seen them face just one Kiwi derby, away to the Highlanders, a team they feasted on in a 50-7 rout.

But the Blues represented a massive step up – and the Hurricanes still went and blew them off the paddock. Two converted tries inside 15 minutes set the Hurricanes on their way and while the Blues answered inside the half hour to reduce the gap to two points, two further five-pointers either side of halftime gave the hosts the breathing room they needed.

While the Blues were able to pull one try back when in-form Hurricanes winger Fehi Fineanganofo was yellow-carded 12 minutes into the second half, Clark Laidlaw’s side regrouped and completed the scoring with two more converted tries of their own.

Cam Roigard makes a break during the Hurricanes’ big win over the Blues in Wellington Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

The Hurricanes’ game is built around an athletic pack, and the world-leading halfback play of Cam Roigard. The All Blacks No. 9 has been superb this season, and there are no better running scrum-halves in the game right now. When you consider the attacking threats outside him, it’s easy to see why the Hurricanes have only once this year been held to under 30 points and have run up 40-plus points on five separate occasions.

But the biggest coup of their season must surely be the recruitment of Japan captain Warner Dearns. The towering Brave Blossoms lock is a truly world-class second-rower and, in another era, may have potentially been wearing black, instead of red and white, at Test level.

Dearns has created all kinds of issues for opposition teams at lineout time this season, adding four further lineout steals to his competition-leading 18 ahead of the weekend’s play. He also gets through a mountain of work in defence and is an athletic ball-carrier in attack.

The Hurricanes will recognise they face another stern test away to the Chiefs this weekend, while a tantalizing Anzac Day Super Round clash against the Brumbies in Christchurch awaits the week after.

LOMAX FINALLY UP AND RUNNING

Zac Lomax at last enjoyed his first rugby minutes in 11 years on Saturday, delivering a solid professional rugby debut as the Force blew a golden opportunity for back-to-back wins.

Lomax played 20 minutes off the bench as the Force went down 24-22, despite having a conversion to level the scores, and then a penalty to win it, which both were pushed wide.

Lomax made one impressive run that set the Force on the counterattack, got up for an attacking high ball, and showed his defensive quality in a promising cameo coach Simon Cron will hope he builds on.

Another appearance off the bench, at home against the Crusaders, may well be the prescribed plan of action again this week, although Cron could throw his star code-hopper in at the deep end, too.

Cron will be cursing this defeat regardless however, his frustration palpable as he exploded in the coaches box at fulltime.

Just a week after a flawless kicking display in Brisbane, Ben Donaldson pushed a kickable penalty wide with only minutes to play, while Kurtley Beale had earlier stepped up while the fly-half was receiving medical attention and stroked his sole conversion attempt to the right of the posts.