Watch every second of the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season live and on demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\nMeanwhile, the ACT Brumbies came back from an early deficit to prove too strong for the Western Force in Perth.<\/p>\n
Rugby.com.au\u00a0breaks it down and selects its Team of the Week from the Australian teams in Round One.<\/p>\n
Front row: Tom Lambert (Waratahs), Ethan Dobbins (Waratahs), Rhys van Nek (Brumbies)<\/p>\n
A near sweep for the NSW Waratahs after they were clinical up front against the Queensland Reds.<\/p>\n
Tom Lambert won several penalties against Zane Nonggorr at scrum time late in the first half, while Ethan Dobbins was near perfect all night with his throws to go with a physical display.<\/p>\n
Rhys van Nek just edges out Dan Botha, who was great in an 80 minute shift, with his try and strong ball carrying the difference.<\/p>\n
James Slipper deserves a mention, proving he still has it in his first match since his Test retirement.<\/p>\n
Second Row: Lukhan Salakaia-Loto (Reds), Franco Molina (Force)<\/p>\n
Two worthy nominations for players in a losing effort.<\/p>\n
Salakaia-Loto was a physical beast and did enough for selection over Miles Amatosero.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Molina was everywhere for the Force and was a bundle of energy from his first play to his last, which was a well deserved try backing up Ben Donaldson\u2019s break.<\/p>\n
Back Row: Vaiolini Ekuasi (Force), Fraser McReight (Reds), Charlie Cale (Brumbies)<\/p>\n
The toughest group to nail down.<\/p>\n
Every blindside flanker for the Australian teams was world-class, but Ekuasi\u2019s impact in his carries and defence was the tie-breaker, but the likes of Joe Brial, Clem Halaholo and Rob Valetini would easily make this team in future weeks with similar performances.<\/p>\n
McReight and Cale were two of the best across the weekend, with the Reds skipper lethal over the ball while Cale\u2019s athleticism was a big reason behind the Brumbies\u2019 big win, finishing with a double and a try assist.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Halves: Ryan Lonergan (Brumbies), Declan Meredith (Brumbies)<\/p>\n
A clean sweep for the Brumbies in a tidy performance for the visitors in Perth.<\/p>\n
Lonergan\u2019s delivery was on point all night, also showing off the ball-running ability with a rare scrum-half crash ball line.<\/p>\n
As for Meredith, he took over the game, sparking the visitors with a brutal bump off through a pair of Wallabies for a try, proving to be the architect of their comeback win.<\/p>\n
Jake Gordon was a narrow omission, showing why he is the Wallabies incumbent in the Reds’ victory.<\/p>\n
Midfield: Hunter Paisami (Reds), Kadin Pritchard (Brumbies)<\/p>\n
Another tough group to select but Paisami and Pritchard get the nod.<\/p>\n
Paisami\u2019s influence flew under the radar, but he put in a very good shift to limit Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii\u2019s involvement and space to create.<\/p>\n
For Pritchard, he really shone late in the fixture as he impressed on his debut start.<\/p>\n
Joey Walton and David Feliuai were reliable as ever in their respective wins.<\/p>\n
Outside Backs: Max Jorgensen (Waratahs), Ollie Sapsford (Brumbies), Andy Muirhead (Brumbies)<\/p>\n
Jorgensen was the player of the round in a truly world-class showing from the Wallaby.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He did it all, whether it was a special solo effort or a freakish defensive save to shut down the Reds.<\/p>\n
Sapsford and Muirhead round out the team, with the unsung heroes of the Brumbies picking their moments to piece apart the Force.<\/p>\n
Rugby.com.au’s Super Rugby Pacific Australian Team of the Week Round One<\/p>\n
1. Tom Lambert<\/p>\n
2. Ethan Dobbins\u00a0<\/p>\n
3. Rhys van Nek<\/p>\n
4. Lukhan Salakaia-Loto<\/p>\n
5. Franco Molina<\/p>\n
6. Clem Halaholo<\/p>\n
7. Fraser McReight<\/p>\n
8. Charlie Cale<\/p>\n
9. Ryan Lonergan<\/p>\n
10. Declan Meredith<\/p>\n
11. Max Jorgensen<\/p>\n
12. Hunter Paisami<\/p>\n
13. Kadin Pritchard<\/p>\n
14. Ollie Sapsford<\/p>\n
15. Andy Muirhead<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Super Rugby Pacific returned with a bang as the Australian teams came out firing in Round One. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[58864,64,63,32951,12061,760,85,48013,11229],"class_list":["post-482861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-act-brumbies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nsw-waratahs","tag-queensland-reds","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-super-rugby-pacific","tag-western-force"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}