Watch every second of the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season live and on demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\nSo what did we learn?<\/p>\n
1. Tupaea firming for POTY honours\u00a0<\/p>\n
Quinn Tupaea is the red-hot favourite to be Super Rugby Pacific Player of the Year after another starring performance.<\/p>\n
The co-leader will poll big after a highly influential performance in the midfield, scoring twice and looking like a constant threat whenever he was near the ball.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been a constant point-scorer, and with the votes set to go behind closed doors after round 10, expect Tupaea to be firmly in the lead when they do.<\/p>\n
2. Bye needed for Tahs<\/p>\n
The Waratahs will be desperately looking forward to the bye ahead of a crucial month of fixtures.<\/p>\n
They were caught one out too often, allowing the Chiefs to build pressure and control the contest for the victory.<\/p>\n
It leaves them at least four points outside the top six halfway through the season (with one game to come), with some tough away fixtures still to come.<\/p>\n
This includes trips to Christchurch to open the new stadium and Super Round, Lautoka and Perth.<\/p>\n
The Waratahs have shown they can win away from home in tough places, but they\u2019ll need to nab some big scalps if they wish to be playing finals.<\/p>\n
3. Max more than a try-scoring freak\u00a0<\/p>\n
Max Jorgensen\u2019s try-scoring reel is one of the best in the world, so it\u2019s easy to forget how good he is around the park in general play.<\/p>\n
He pulled off a textbook try-saver on Emoni Narawa to dump him into touch close to the line, while the cut-out ball to Sid Harvey for his try was spectacular.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s constantly on the move from sideline-to-sideline and keeps growing into his game.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll be vital to their second half of the season, with fellow Wallabies star Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii likely back in the next 2-3 weeks.<\/p>\n
4. Finau inserts himself back into All Black picture<\/p>\n
Samipeni Finau delivered a perfect reminder of his quality as he sent a message to Test selectors.<\/p>\n
The back-rower was abrasive across the park, delivering a thumping hit on Siosifa Amone, one of the best of the year.<\/p>\n
He backed that up with a well deserved try as Finau kept pumping the ball over the gain-line.<\/p>\n
The entire Chiefs pack was dominant, with Josh Lord and Tupou Vaa\u2019i excellent in the second row.<\/p>\n
5. Making life hard<\/p>\n
The Waratahs were guilty of gifting the Chiefs too many chances to attack and build pressure in the first half.<\/p>\n
They struggled with their handling and scrum and found themselves camped inside their half for a significant period.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In total, the visitors conceded six turnovers in the first 17 minutes, not including Sid Harvey\u2019s air-swing for the opener, while they were pinged at least three times (short and full arm) for scrum infringements.<\/p>\n
To beat the Chiefs in Hamilton you need to be perfect, with the Waratahs punished as a result.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NSW Waratahs were no match for the Chiefs as the hosts delivered an impressive 42-14 victory. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,5386,32951,760,85,48013],"class_list":{"0":"post-586187","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-chiefs","11":"tag-nsw-waratahs","12":"tag-rugby","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-super-rugby-pacific"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586187","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=586187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}