Super Rugby Pacific will have 6-team playoff format for 2025

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Super Rugby Pacific will have a complex new playoff system next season involving six teams rather eight which qualified for the post-season this year.

The Southern Hemisphere tournament has been reduced from 12 to 11 teams after the Melbourne Rebels folded for financial reasons. There are five teams from New Zealand, four from Australia and two from the Pacific Islands.

Next season the top six teams after the regular season will take part in three rounds of playoffs.

The top three teams will host the fourth, fifth and sixth-place teams in the first playoff round. The winners of those matches will go on to the semifinals along with the top-seeded loser from the first round.

The winning teams from the first round of playoffs will have home advantage in the semifinals and the winners of those matches will contest the final.

“We want to create a competition where anyone can win,” Super Rugby Pacific chief executive Jack Mesley said in a statement Friday. " It’s really exciting, lots of thinking has gone into it.

“We think its going to add a lot of interest for fans. We had lots of feedback about our eight-team finals series and so we have listened to that.”

The tournament will begin on Feb. 15, 2025 and each of the 11 teams will play 14 regular-season matches, seven at home and seven away.

Mesley said Super Rugby Pacific has not discounted the possibility of South African teams returning the tournament. Eligibility rules might also be loosened to allow Wallaby players to play for New Zealand teams and All Blacks to play in Australia.

The Auckland, New Zealand-based Blues won this season's title.

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AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby