Blues Akira Ioane and Rieko Ioane celebrate their win during the Super Rugby Pacific Final. Photo: Brett Phibbs/Photosport
A new finals format is coming to Super Rugby Pacific.
After the heavily criticised top eight system saw a combined scoreline of 158-62 in this year's four quarter-final match-ups, the play-offs will now be contested between the top six finishing teams.
Sunday afternoon kickoffs and an extended 16-round regular season will also be implemented in 2025.
With the Rebels not returning the competition has been cut to 11 teams, each of which will play 14 round robin games - seven home and seven on the road.
Among these will be two meetings of the same sides, with a focus on rivalry match-ups.
Super Rugby Pacific CEO Jack Mesley said fans were at the centre of their decisions.
"We want to create a competition where anyone can win. 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 playoff system will also see a 'lucky loser' given a second life should they lose in the first week of the finals.
Dubbed the 'lucky loser,' the highest ranked losing side in week one will progress to the semi finals.
This also gives teams a chance to usurp those who finished higher than them and claim semi-final hosting rights.
For example, if the second-placed finishers lost in week one, the third-placed finishers would assume home ground advantage in week two.
"We have designed it to ensure that those rankings are really important and provide that incentive to finish higher."
Mesley said they took inspiration from a number of competitions around the world.
"Our percentage of eight teams in a 12 team competition was too high, and I think we are going to get some great finals matches."
He said they took feedback everywhere from social media to the clubs themselves.
Asked whether the ship had sailed on a return to Super Rugby for South Africa, Mesley would not rule it out.
"We will continue to look at all options going into the future - at this stage nothing is off the table."
The crowd cheers on the Blues during the Super Rugby Pacific Final. Photo: Brett Phibbs / Photosport
He also revealed they are exploring the possibility of loosening eligibility rules, allowing All Blacks and Wallabies to cross the Tasman.
"It's a really interesting element - we have seen with Ardie's (Savea) announcement how much excitement that generated, player eligibility is a big decision and we will look at that as part of our strategy, but it is certainly an area of interest."
The 2025 Super Rugby season:
- Begins Friday, 14 February, a week earlier than previous years.
- Eleven teams play 14 games and will be allocated two byes.
- Teams will play four teams twice and the six remaining teams once.
- The top six teams on the table at the end of the regular season will qualify for the three-week finals series.
- Week one will be 1st vs sixth, second vs fifth and third vs fourth, with the higher-seeded teams to host.
- The three winners of the will progress to the semi-finals.
- They will be joined by the highest-seeded losing team, who will drop one seeding.
- semi-vinals will be 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3, with the higher-seeded teams to host.
- Winners progress to the grand final.