Which Super Rugby Pacific Club Matches Your Favorite North American Team?
Which Super Rugby Pacific Club Matches Your Favorite North American Team?
Discover your Super Rugby Pacific club! This guide pairs every team with a North American equivalent, helping new fans find their perfect match for 2025.
As FloRugby counts down the weeks under the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific season gets underway, we’d like to formally welcome those of you in the United States and Canada from all levels of rugby fandom, from the diehards to those just discovering the sport.
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If you plan to withstand some late nights and check out one of the top club rugby competitions in the world in Super Rugby this year, but you don’t know where to start, this handy guide will give you some familiar reference points for each club.
Getting into rugby as a newcomer may seem daunting at first, but it’s worth the patience, especially when you get to see some of the best players in the world on whatever screen(s) you prefer.
Need a Super Rugby Pacific club to support this season? Here’s a brief breakdown of all 11 sides — along with a rough equivalent of a team across North America’s major sports:
Blues
Home: Auckland, New Zealand
It took a longer time than they probably would’ve liked, but the Blues finally secured a Super Rugby title last season for the first time in 21 years, and they enter the 2025 campaign as the defending league champions.
Located in the biggest city in probably the biggest hub country for rugby union in the world, the Blues — a Super Rugby original, having joined the competition when it began as the Super 12 in 1996 — play in one of the most iconic grounds in the world in Eden Park, where the All Blacks haven’t been beaten since 1994.
The Blues are an off-and-on power in Oceania rugby, and they're well-supported, having won the first two Super 12 titles in 1996 and 1997, followed by another win in 2003, but from 2004-2021 the club only made the playoffs twice.
Coaches Leon MacDonald and Vern Cotter have spearheaded the club’s revival over the past few seasons, with the Blues losing in the final in 2022, before finally winning it all two years later.
North American equivalent: Edmonton Oilers (NHL). A dominant period was followed by decades of unremarkable play, but they’re now back among the elites in the sport.
Brumbies
Home: Canberra, Australia
The only Australian side to win multiple Super Rugby titles, the Brumbies have humble roots, with a heavy focus on recruiting from Canberra and the area surrounding the Australian capital since joining on during the inaugural season of then-Super 12 in 1996.
Predicted to struggle initially with players considered not good enough by other clubs in the competition, the Brumbies instead made two finals in Super Rugby’s first five seasons, before capturing their first title in club history in 2001.
They won it all again three years later, and while they’ve still been one of Australia’s most consistently successful clubs, they’ve not made it back to a final since 2013.
That being said, the Brumbies are on the doorstep of playing for what could be a third Super Rugby crown, as evidenced by the fact that they’ve made the semifinal round in each of the past four proper seasons.
They placed third in 2024 as the top Aussie side, hoping to become the league’s first champion from the country since 2014.
North American equivalent: Washington Capitals (NHL). Also based in a nation’s capital, silverware has been around intermittently and seems to always be looming.
Chiefs
Home: Hamilton, New Zealand
Also a debutant in the inaugural 1996 Super 12 season, the Chiefs were fairly unremarkable throughout the first stretch of their history, being the last of the New Zealand sides to qualify for the playoffs in 2004.
But once the Chiefs started to get things figured out and build a culture, they’ve since become one of the most consistent winners in the competition. It could be rewarded with some long-wanted silverware very, very soon.
The club had only made two knockout-round trips in its history before winning its first Super Rugby title in 2012, in which the Chiefs then proceeded to go back-to-back under legendary captain Liam Messam.
The Chiefs haven't missed the playoffs in a proper Super Rugby season since, and they can taste a third league championship, having been defeated in the final in each of the past two seasons by the Crusaders and Blues.
North American equivalent: Cleveland Cavaliers (NBA). Had a title-winning stretch in the 2010s with an iconic player, but a new generation is here to try and make its mark.
Crusaders
Home: Christchurch, New Zealand
Not long ago, the Crusaders — the most successful club in Super Rugby history with 14 titles — were the impenetrable fortress, a juggernaut that seemingly couldn’t be stopped, no matter what the rest of the league threw at it.
Under former player Scott Robertson from 2017-2023, the Crusaders won every proper, non pandemic-impacted Super Rugby title, while also capturing regionalized Super Rugby Aotearoa championships in 2020 and 2021, which only consisted of New Zealand-based clubs.
Robertson departed after the 2023 season to coach New Zealand, however, and the Crusaders immediately struggled, finishing ninth last season and failing to qualify for the playoffs after being dominant in the competition for so long.
Current coach Rob Penney is on the hot seat to perform in 2025 with a loaded squad chock-full of All Blacks, and mediocrity won’t likely be tolerated much longer for a team that’s rarely had down periods in its history.
North American equivalent: New England Patriots (NFL). A former power struggling as it tries to navigate a new era without an iconic coach.
Fijian Drua
Home: Fiji (multiple cities)
Fiji is one of the proudest rugby nations on the planet, as the tiny group of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean consistently punches above its weight internationally, despite having a population of under 1 million people from which to choose players. That's less than one-fifth of the size of the Sydney metropolitan area.
In 2022 with the Drua — after many years of rumors and speculation — the passionate fans of Fiji finally got a club team in one of the best rugby competitions in the world to cheer on, too.
Every player who suits up for the Drua is Fiji-born and/or represents Fiji internationally, and the club has played home matches in the past at both the HFC Bank Stadium in the capital, Suva, and Churchill Park in Lautoka.
They’ve made the Super Rugby knockout rounds two years in a row after back-to-back seventh-place finishes in the table, losing in the quarterfinals both times.
North American equivalent: Kansas City Royals (MLB). Located in a passionate area for sports, they’ve tended recently to defy expectations and maximize talent.
Highlanders
Home: Dunedin, New Zealand
Historically an underdog among the New Zealand-based teams, the Highlanders had a decade-long stretch from 2003-2013 in which they did not earn a berth to the playoffs.
They got their moment in the sun in 2015, however, when they won their first, and to date only, Super Rugby championship when scrum-half Aaron Smith, the greatest player in Highlanders’ history and a Rugby World Cup winner with the All Blacks, led them to an epic maiden title.
With the exception of 2023, the Highlanders have made the playoffs every season since 2014, but they have yet to make it back to a final since that 2015 win, signaling them as a good club that’s usually a step behind the more powerful teams in their country.
The Highlanders don’t have the massive selection of All Blacks at their disposal like others in New Zealand do, but their ability to always field a competitive, hard-to-beat outfit that will consistently push for a playoff place is a testament to the club’s good structure and culture.
North American equivalent: Pittsburgh Steelers (NFL). It has been a while since they’ve been champions, but you’re almost always bound to find them playing solidly and in the playoffs.
Hurricanes
Home: Wellington, New Zealand
Jonah Lomu. Ma’a Nonu. Beauden Barrett. Dane Coles.
Some of the most iconic names in the gilded history of New Zealand rugby have suited up for the Hurricanes at some point in their careers, as few clubs in the competition can compare to the sheer depth of talent that the capital-based side has brought onto the pitch since debuting in 1996.
Has it all resulted in silverware for the Hurricanes? Yes, but maybe not as much as you might think.
Only in the 18-team competition in 2016 have the Hurricanes stood atop the podium as champions of Super Rugby, with runner-up finishes coming in 2006 and 2015.
Last season, the Hurricanes probably had their best chance since 2016 to bring home a second title to Wellington as they topped the regular-season table on 56 points, but a semifinal loss to the Chiefs ended that dream.
Now out to try and finish the job they started, the Hurricanes should be among the front-runners to win it all — and maybe a little more motivated this time around.
North American equivalent: Los Angeles Lakers (NBA). Almost always star-studded with hopes of finding glory, but trophies in the modern era have come intermittently.
Moana Pasifika
Home: Albany, New Zealand
Though its home base for this season technically is in the Auckland suburbs, Moana Pasifika’s identity is a different story entirely.
Joining Super Rugby in 2022 with the Drua, Moana Pasifika became the competition’s first club to represent the people of, and feature (almost exclusively), players with Pasifika heritage, including the rugby-mad nations of Samoa and Tonga, along with other places in the South Pacific.
They took part against the Highlanders in the first Super Rugby match ever played in Tonga last May, as well.
The club has struggled since its debut season, avoiding finishing last in the table last season for the first time, scraping by to secure 11th place, but Moana’s fortunes could change this year thanks to the massive offseason signing of All Blacks legend Ardie Savea.
The 31-year-old and former World Rugby Player of the Year is by far Moana’s most accomplished player, and he’ll be looking to help build a culture of success for the pride of Pasifika rugby.
North American equivalent: Inter Miami (MLS). Fairly new and trying to find its way at one point, the arrival of a star has brought newfound attention to the club.
New South Wales Waratahs
Home: Sydney, Australia
The last Super Rugby champion from Australia, it has been over a decade since the pride of Sydney won a legendary final over the Crusaders in 2014 at Stadium Australia, when Bernard Foley kicked through a long match-winning penalty with seconds left to lift the Waratahs to their first Super Rugby title.
Results since then have been mixed.
The Tahs placed third in the regular-season standings in 2015 and 2018 but lost in the semifinal round, then made back-to-back playoff appearances in 2022 and 2023.
The wheels completely fell off last season, however, as they only won two matches and finished last in the table on 13 points. Head coach Darren Coleman got sacked.
Ex-Brumbies coach Dan McKellar has arrived and aims to restore the Tahs’ winning ways, as the club has brought in 17 new players from all over to try and right the ship.
The list includes ex-rugby league superstar Joseph Sua’ali’i, with the 21-year-old making a high-profile switch to union ahead of this season.
North American equivalent: Arizona Diamondbacks (MLB). Have won it all before, but they also have a tendency to yo-yo between being good to great and poor to bad.
Queensland Reds
Home: Brisbane, Australia
From winning the Super Rugby title in 2011 to going through a dark age in which just about nothing was going their way — having not finished higher than 13th from 2014-2019 — things are starting to be on the up again for the Reds.
Queensland built itself up a bunch of confidence when it finished second and first in the 2020 and 2021 Super Rugby AU regional competitions, respectively, as fortunes have begun to change for the former champions over the past few seasons.
The Reds finished fifth a season ago and made the quarterfinal round of the playoffs for the third consecutive year, scoring 444 points in matches (their most in the Super Rugby era) along the way.
Full of senior-capped Wallabies, the Reds are looking to make another step forward in 2025, especially with reinforcements arriving from the Melbourne Rebels, who were axed from this year’s competition due to financial woes.
North American equivalent: Denver Broncos (NFL). Once competing near the top, some down periods have come, but they’ve rebounded to be overall a solid squad each year.
Western Force
Home: Perth, Australia
The only club currently in Super Rugby (besides the Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika) that joined after the formation of the Super 12 in 1996, the Force joined what was then the Super 14 in 2006.
The club’s relationship with Super Rugby since then has been nothing short of tumultuous; following just over a decade of mediocre to poor results, finishing only as high as seventh in the table in the 2007 season, the Force were one of three teams cut from the competition ahead of the 2018 season when SANZAAR reduced the number of teams in Super Rugby from 18 to 15.
After stints in the now-defunct National Rugby Championship and Global Rapid Rugby, the Force’s return to Super Rugby began in 2020 with their inclusion in the regionalized Super Rugby AU competition, in tandem with Super Rugby Trans-Tasman the next year.
They officially rejoined the proper Super Rugby competition in 2022, having placed ninth that season and 10th in each of the past two years.
North American equivalent: Las Vegas Raiders (NFL). Years of dealing with an uncertain future in the past has now been solved for the time being — but results haven’t come yet.
Written by Briar Napier - @BriarNapier
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