Super Rugby reveals 'lucky loser' playoff overhaul
09/13/2024 01:35 AM
Super Rugby Pacific has overhauled the format for the 2025 season, introducing an extended 16-round campaign and a new six-team playoffs system.
The 2025 season will begin on Friday 14 February, a week earlier than previous years, to accommodate the additional round of Super Rugby Pacific action.
Following the demise of the Melbourne Rebels, 11 teams will play 14 regular season matches, consisting of seven home games and seven away games, and be allocated two byes.
Howevever, the major change has come in the playoff format, with six of the 11 teams now progressing, instead of the previous eight out of 12 teams.
The new format will see the top six teams qualify for a three-week finals series featuring six matches:
- In week one, the highest-seeded teams will host matches between 1st vs 6th, 2nd vs 5th and 3rd vs 4th;
- The winners of these three matches will advance to the semifinals and be joined by the highest-seeded losing team, known as "the lucky loser";
- In week two, the 1st seed will host the 4th seed and the 2nd seed will host the 3rd seed, with the winners progressing to the grand final;
- In week three, the highest-seeded team will host the decider.
The 2025 #SuperRugbyPacific season format is here
Here is an explainer of how the competition will operate from an exciting round 1 through to the Grand Final pic.twitter.com/yEtPOOVift
— Super Rugby Pacific (@SuperRugby) September 12, 2024
Super Rugby chief executive Jack Mesley said various six-team playoff structures were looked at, including the French Top 14, which allowed the top two-ranked teams to progress straight to hosing semi-finals, while teams ranked third to sixth battle it out.
"One well-trodden path is give [the teams ranked] 1 and 2 the week off in the first week," Mesley said.
"What we wanted to do was ensure we had as much premium content for fans as possible. That's where the new structure has been formatted from.
"There is as much finals content as we can have featuring as many clubs."
Photo: Phil Walter/Getty Images
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