WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Super Rugby is booming. Early indications show that fan interest in the Southern Hemisphere tournament has reached new highs this season, building on strong viewing numbers in 2024.
The 2024 season saw a 12 percent increase in viewership in New Zealand which has five of the 11 Super Rugby teams. Data from the ratings agency Nielsen showed 2.4 million Kiwis watched matches either free to air, on pay television or on mobile and streaming services.
More than 640,000 viewers watched last year’s final between the Auckland-based Blues and Hamilton-based Chiefs on television and 113,000 more on digital platforms.
Figures from the first three rounds this season show that numbers again are strong both in New Zealand and Australia, which has four teams after the Melbourne Rebels team was dumped due to financial difficulties at the end of last season.
Crowds at two venues in Australia this season are regularly averaging more than 20,000 fans at games for the first time since 2015. The average attendance in Australia in the first round was around 15,000.
A reason for that, and for the larger viewing numbers overall, may be the competitiveness of Australian teams this year. Three Australian and three New Zealand teams occupy the top six places on the championship table after the first six rounds.
The Queensland Reds in third place, New South Wales Waratahs in fourth and ACT Brumbies in fifth are competing strongly for playoff places with the Chiefs, the Christchurch-based Crusaders and Dunedin-based Highlanders.
Figures for the first three rounds of this season’s tournament released by Sky television in New Zealand show another 12 percent increase in viewership. More than 1.1 million fans have watched matches on free to air, pay television or digital platforms.
In Australia, viewership on the Nine Network has been around 17 percent up on the previous season.
Blues have the blues
What’s wrong the with Blues. That’s probably the most-asked question in Super Rugby this season.
After six rounds, the defending champion Blues are in 10th place on the Super Rugby table with a 1-5 record. That’s a major surprise for a team studded with All Blacks.
On Saturday, the Blues were beaten 42-19 at home by the Crusaders for their worst loss of the season so far.
There were 10 All Blacks in the Blues’ match 23, although they also have 12 players on the injured list including All Blacks Beauden Barrett, Ofa Tu’ungafasi and Sam Darry. That’s in keeping with the nature of the tournament this year. More than 70 players across all 11 teams were unavailable for the sixth round because of injury.
The Blues were their own worst enemies against the Crusaders with a constant stream of errors, breakdown turnovers and disciplinary lapses. Their set pieces also were patchy.
Saturday’s loss to the Crusaders was the Blue’s third in a row at home.
“If I’m being objective, we’re hating it,” coach Vern Cotter said. “Losing at home and by that amount of points, we’ll use it as a vehicle to become better. It’s not all bad, but today’s a rough day.”
The Blues are in danger of missing out on a place in the top-six playoffs unless they can improve in the second half of the season.
Cotter said Blues manager Richard Fry had an apt golfing analogy for the team’s predicament.
“He said ‘we haven’t done well on the front nine. We’ll have to be much better on the back nine’. We need a couple of birdies.”
Woeful Waratahs no more
The New South Wales Waratahs finished dead last in last year’s tournament. This season, after five matches and a bye, they are fourth on the championship table with a 4-1 record.
Their turnaround reached a high point on Saturday when they beat archrivals the ACT Brumbies for the first time in 14 matches dating back to 2018.
New Waratahs head coach Dan McKellar who formerly coached the Brumbies watched his team win a contentious derby 28-23 in front of more than 20,000 fans in Sydney.
The Brumbies led 21-18 with 12 minutes to go after a try to Luke Reimer. But Max Jorgensen set up the winning try for Joe Walton six minutes later.
Features of the match were the quality of the Waratahs’ defense against the rolling maul and their ability to score off turnovers. The Brumbies conceded seven first half turnovers and the Waratahs scored from two. They were also able to hold on as the Brumbies piled on 17 points after halftime.
The Waratahs were out to prove a point after stinging criticism of their effort in last weekend’s 35-15 loss to the Reds.
“We had our integrity questioned throughout the week and that’s a tough thing to have as a rugby player and a rugby club,” captain Hugh Sinclair said. “A lot of people wrote a few things about us and we responded pretty well.”
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AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
Steve Mcmorran, The Associated Press
