Watch every second of the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season live and on demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\nMeanwhile, the Western Force was a whisker away from defeating the Fijian Drua in Lautoka, missing a late minute penalty.<\/p>\n
Rugby.com.au\u00a0selects its team of the week from the Australian sides in Round Nine.<\/p>\n
Front Row: Aidan Ross (Queensland Reds), Brandon Paenga-Amosa and Misinale Epenisa (both Western Force)<\/p>\n
The Western Force front-rower were dominant in defeat, easily getting their upper hand over the Fijian Drua.<\/p>\n
Epenisa was the standout, scoring an early try and nearly nabbing a second, with his work close to the line impactful for the visitors, while Paenga-Amosa was excellent in defence.<\/p>\n
Ross stops the all-Force shutout after a tidy defensive performance in his extended 58-minute stint.<\/p>\n
Second Row: Jeremy Williams (Western Force) and Nick Frost (ACT Brumbies)<\/p>\n
A host of second-rowers to pick from but Williams and Frost get the nod.<\/p>\n
Williams did excellently to drive over for a crucial try, controlling the lineout and pinching a steal.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Frost was tidy across the park (even if he found himself in the thick of a controversial try).<\/p>\n
Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and Franco Molina were both superb for their respective teams.<\/p>\n
Back Row: Rob Valetini, Rory Scott (both ACT Brumbies) and Vaiolini Ekuasi (Western Force)<\/p>\n
Valetini and Scott were involved in plenty of the grunt work during their important win.<\/p>\n
The two noticed up double-digit carries and tackles, with Valetini making a monster 87 metres.<\/p>\n
Ekuasi was a strong ball carrier throughout the 80 minutes, notching a team high for carries (16), metres (119) and post-contact metres (79).<\/p>\n
Harry Wilson and Fraser McReight deserve mention after producing Test-quality outings in their win.<\/p>\n
Halves: Ryan Lonergan (ACT Brumbies) and Ben Donaldson (Western Force)<\/p>\n
Lonergan was at his typical best, celebrating his 100th game with the opening try.<\/p>\n
He partners with Donaldson, whose attacking game was strong, even if the boot didn\u2019t follow.<\/p>\n
Harry McLaughlin-Phillips was just edged out, almost doing enough in his 37 minutes on the park.<\/p>\n
Centres: Hunter Paisami and Josh Flook (both Queensland Reds)<\/p>\n
The Reds duo take their place in the team once again after a stellar night.<\/p>\n
Paisami has been brilliant and was a damaging threat against a pair of All Blacks in David Havili and Leicester Fainga\u2019anuku, breaking five tackles.<\/p>\n
Flook was elusive with a pair of line breaks and almost set up Jock Campbell as he came out with a point to prove, as he prepares to leave for Italy.<\/p>\n
Outside Backs: Tim Ryan, Filipo Daugunu and Jock Campbell (all Queensland Reds)<\/p>\n
The Reds deserve the clean sweep after all three outside backs lit up Suncorp Stadium.<\/p>\n
Daugunu was the pick of the round after terrorising the Crusaders in all aspects, including nabbing the winner late in the contest.<\/p>\n
Ryan looked at his electric best and caused Sevu Recce a handful, with Campbell almost finishing off a well-worked try, only to be denied right at the goal-line.<\/p>\n
He narrowly beats out Corey Toole, who made good use of his limited opportunities in Dunedin.<\/p>\n
Rugby.com.au’s Super Rugby Pacific Australian Team of the Week Round Nine<\/p>\n
1. Aidan Ross<\/p>\n
2. Brandon Paenga-Amosa<\/p>\n
3. Misinale Epenisa<\/p>\n
4. Jeremy Williams<\/p>\n
5. Nick Frost<\/p>\n
6. Rob Valetini<\/p>\n
7. Rory Scott<\/p>\n
8. Vaiolini Ekuasi\u00a0<\/p>\n
9. Ryan Lonergan<\/p>\n
10. Ben Donaldson<\/p>\n
11. Tim Ryan<\/p>\n
12. Hunter Paisami<\/p>\n
13. Josh Flook<\/p>\n
14. Filipo Daugunu<\/p>\n
15. Jock Campbell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Round Nine of Super Rugby Pacific was a near clean sweep for the Australian teams in an entertaining…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85,48013],"class_list":{"0":"post-603715","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-rugby","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-super-rugby-pacific"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603715","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=603715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}