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2026 Super Rugby Pacific season

2026 Super Rugby Pacific season
Countries Australia (4 teams)
Fiji (1 team)
New Zealand (5 teams)
Pacific Islands (1 team)
Tournament format(s)Round-robin and knockout
Matches played5
Tries scored38 (7.6 per match)
Top point scorer(s)
Top try scorer(s) Miracle Faiʻilagi, Moana Pasifika (3)
Official websitesuper.rugby/superrugby
← 2025 (Previous) (Next) 2027 →

The 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season[a] is the 31st season of the Super Rugby, an annual rugby union competition organised by SANZAAR between teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and a combined team from Samoa, Tonga and other Pacific Island nations. It is the 30th anniversary of the competition, having been established in 1996.[3] The fixtures were released on 28 August 2025, and features the return of Super Round in Christchurch, New Zealand.[4]

The defending champions are the Crusaders.[5][6]

Format and competition

Unchanged from last season (2025), eleven teams compete in a round-robin format, playing fourteen matches each (seven home, seven away), with two byes.[3] Teams face four "rivals" twice and six others once. The top six advance to the Qualifying Finals: 1st vs 6th, 2nd vs 5th, and 3rd vs 4th. Winners and the highest-seeded losing team move to the semi-finals. Newly introduced for 2026,[3] rather than losing one seeding rank as in the previous season, the highest-ranked losing team enters as the fourth seed, playing away in the Semi-finals, and, if they advance, in the Final.[3][7]

Standings are based on competition points: four for a win, two for a draw, and none for a loss. Bonus points are awarded for scoring three or more tries than the opponent or losing by seven points or fewer.[8]

Law changes

In February 2026, just weeks before the start of the season, it was revealed that some of the existing laws pertaining to restarts, kicking/territory, rucks, and the television match official (TMO), would be amended in order to reduce stoppages, keep the ball-in-play longer, and simplify the viewing experience.[9][10][11] The law changes, as laid out by The Sydney Morning Herald, state:[12]

  • It will no longer be mandatory for the referee to issue a yellow or red card to a player on the defending team when awarding a penalty try. Any sanction will be at the discretion of the referee. (Law 8.3)
  • Accidental offsides and teams delaying playing the ball away from a ruck will result in free kicks rather than scrums. (Law 10.5 and Law 15.17)
  • After the referee has called "use it" at the ruck, no additional players from the team in possession may join the ruck. (Law 15.17)
  • Teams will be permitted to pass the ball back into their half before kicking a 50:22. (Law 18.8a)
  • Players will be allowed to take quick taps within one metre either side of the of the mark, or anywhere behind the mark, if they are within that two-metre channel running parallel to the touchlines. (Law 20.2)
  • The television match official (TMO) will only intervene unprompted if the referee has overlooked an act of serious foul play (yellow card level or above), or a clear and obvious infringement leading to a try.

These changes were reported to have "emphatic support" amongst Super Rugby clubs, match officials and stakeholders.[13] Sports news website Planet Rugby gave a positive assessment about law changes that give referees more discretion and help speed the game up, particularly removing the mandatory card for penalty tries, tightening the "use it" ruck law to kill caterpillars, and allowing more flexibility for quick taps.[14] The website was critical of removing scrums for accidental offsides and tweaking the 50/22 law, arguing these risk depowering the scrum, encouraging more kicking, and pushes the sport away from its traditional balance of playing styles, and commented that "it is another example of the Australian and Kiwi bigwigs trying to limit the impact of the set-piece."[14] The law changes were also heavily criticised by French former Test rugby referee Mathieu Raynal, whom stated to Sud Radio: "They [the Southern Hemisphere] want more passing, more tries, less time spent in mauls and scrums. Whereas we [the Northern Hemisphere] defend these specific elements and are against directions being set by the Southern Hemisphere. Our championship works, our stadiums are full, rugby is more watched than football in the country. We don't want to follow directions coming from countries where stadiums are empty, where they are trying to recreate spectacle and bring people back to stadiums at any cost..."[12]

Teams and personnel

Further information: Super Rugby franchise areas

Overview

Union Team Stadia information Coach Captain
Stadia Capacity
Australia Brumbies GIO Stadium, Canberra 25,011 Stephen Larkham[15]
Force HBF Park, Perth 20,500 Simon Cron[18] Jeremy Williams[19]
HIF Health Insurance Oval, Joondalup 16,000
Reds Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane 52,500 Les Kiss[20] Fraser McReight[21]
Waratahs Allianz Stadium, Sydney 42,500 Dan McKellar[22] Matt Philip[23]
Fiji Drua Churchill Park, Lautoka 11,000 Glen Jackson[24]
4R Electrical Govind Park, Ba 13,500
HFC Bank Stadium, Suva 15,446
New Zealand Blues Eden Park, Auckland 60,000 Vern Cotter[26]
Chiefs FMG Stadium Waikato, Hamilton 25,800 Jono Gibbes[29] Luke Jacobson[30]
Crusaders Apollo Projects Stadium, Christchurch 17,104 Rob Penney[31] David Havili[32]
One NZ Stadium, Christchurch 30,000
Highlanders Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin 30,748 Jamie Joseph[33]
Hurricanes Wellington Regional Stadium, Wellington[d] 34,500 Clark Laidlaw
McLean Park, Napier 19,700
Pacific Islands[e] Moana Pasifika North Harbour Stadium, Albany 14,000 Tana Umaga[39] Miracle Faiʻilagi[40]
Teufaiva Sport Stadium, Nuku'alofa 10,000
Navigation Homes Stadium, Pukekohe 12,000

Locations

Home locations of all the 2026 Super Rugby teams

Regular season

Standings

2026 Super Rugby Pacific standings
Pos Team Pld W D L PF PA PD TF TA TB LB Pts Qualification
1 Brumbies 1 1 0 0 56 24 +32 8 3 1 0 5 Qualifying finals
2 Waratahs 1 1 0 0 36 12 +24 5 2 1 0 5
3 Moana Pasifika 1 1 0 0 40 26 +14 6 4 0 0 4
4 Chiefs 1 1 0 0 19 15 +4 3 2 0 0 4
5 Highlanders 1 1 0 0 25 23 +2 3 2 0 0 4
6 Crusaders 1 0 0 1 23 25 −2 2 3 0 1 1
7 Blues 1 0 0 1 15 19 −4 2 3 0 1 1
8 Hurricanes 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
9 Drua 1 0 0 1 26 40 −14 4 6 0 0 0
10 Reds 1 0 0 1 12 36 −24 2 5 0 0 0
11 Force 1 0 0 1 24 56 −32 3 8 0 0 0
Updated to match(es) played on 14 February 2026. Source: Super Rugby

Round-by-round

The table below shows each team's progression throughout the season. For each round, their cumulative points total is shown with the overall log position in brackets:

Team progression
Team R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 R10 R11 R12 R13 R14 R15 R16 QF SF Final
Blues 1
(7th) 		Bye Bye
Brumbies 5
(1st) 		Bye Bye
Chiefs 4
(4th) 		Bye Bye
Crusaders 1
(6th) 		Bye Bye
Drua 0
(9th) 		Bye Bye
Force 0
(11th) 		Bye Bye
Highlanders 4
(5th) 		Bye Bye
Hurricanes 0
(8th) 		Bye
Moana Pasifika 4
(3rd) 		Bye Bye
Reds 0
(10th) 		Bye Bye
Waratahs 5
(2nd) 		Bye Bye
Key: Win Draw Loss Bye DNQ = Did not qualify

Matches

Further information: List of 2026 Super Rugby Pacific matches
Home \ Away BLU BRU CHI CRU DRU FOR HIG HUR MOA RED WAR
Blues — 15–19 7 Mar 28 Mar 17 Apr 16 May 15 Mar 25 Apr
Brumbies 28 Feb — 20 Mar 18 Apr 9 May 30 May 7 Mar 27 Mar
Chiefs 30 May — 28 Feb 26 Apr 15 May 18 Apr 6 Mar 4 Apr
Crusaders 8 May 22 Feb 22 May — 3 Apr 14 Mar 29 May 24 Apr
Drua 14 Mar — 11 Apr 2 May 28 Feb 26–40 21 Mar 16 May
Force 21 Feb 24–56 28 Mar 18 Apr 23 May — 16 May 30 May
Highlanders 10 Ap 21 Feb 25–23 7 Mar — 20 Mar 26 Apr 9 May
Hurricanes 11 Apr 25 Apr 1 May 13 Mar 23 May — 20 Feb 28 Mar
Moana Pasifika 2 May 11 Apr 21 Mar 27 Feb 27 Mar 9 May — 23 May
Reds 2 May 8 May 11 Apr 29 May 4 Apr 27 Feb — 14 Mar
Waratahs 21 Mar 22 May 20 Feb 1 May 6 Mar 17 Apr 36–12 —
Updated to match(es) played on 14 February 2026. Source: Super Rugby
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Finals series

Qualifying finalsSemi-finalsFinal
TBD
TBD
TBDTBD
TBD
TBD

Qualifying finals

TBD
v
TBD
v
TBD
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TBD
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Semi-finals

TBD
v
TBD
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Final

TBD
v

Statistics

As of 14 February 2026.[41]

Leading point scorers

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