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The Brumbies had applied for their final to be played on Saturday afternoon in Canberra, with local club and schools rugby being played on Thursday and Friday due to the long weekend.
But Super Rugby Pacific boss Jack Mesley said the decision was made last week to play the Brumbies-Canes game in prime time in Australia, to ensure the maximum television audience on Nine’s digital channel Gem, as well as the Nine-owned Stan Sport.
“It was a competition decision,” Mesley said. “We weighed that [broadcast] up, along with other factors, to work through the scheduling.
“It’s not a perfect science, but we think this is the best option of putting the biggest game of Super Rugby in Australia this year, in front of as many people as we can, at an opportune time, with a channel mix that worked.”
The decision to put the Brumbies on Saturday night was made before their finishing position was known, and they could have finished second – and hosted the Reds in a blockbuster – had they beaten the Crusaders last week.
Mesley said Super Rugby Pacific faced a complex matrix when deciding on broadcast schedules, with the broadcasters in different countries and with different prime-time zones. Bedding down a rigid finals schedule based on fixtures and not factoring in participants may not always work best.
On the eve of the finals, Mesley lauded the quality of the Super Rugby Pacific competition, with stats showing an uplift in a range of areas, including broadcast viewership, crowd numbers, entertainment value and overall jeopardy.
Fans re-engaged with Super Rugby Pacific in a significant way, with crowd numbers up by six per cent, and Stan Sport reporting a 27 per cent increase in viewership this season.
Almost half of the 77 games were decided by seven points or less, and it was the second-highest-scoring Super Rugby season of all time, with an average of 57.8 points per game. Within games, there was an average of 4.1 lead changes per game, with over half of the games having a lead change in the second half, and more than a quarter having a lead change in the last 10 minutes.
Almost half of the games played saw a reversal of the result in 2024.
“We have seen a more competitive attractive standard of footy on field, and that’s been supported by a better telling of that story, through things like better comms, the fantasy league – just better ways to engage with a better product,” Mesley said.
“For me, you know, those are kind of the key ingredients to what’s been a great year, but we have a lot more to work on in the future. There’s a lot of growth left.”
The Brumbies had applied for their final to be played on Saturday afternoon in Canberra, with local club and schools rugby being played on Thursday and Friday due to the long weekend.
But Super Rugby Pacific boss Jack Mesley said the decision was made last week to play the Brumbies-Canes game in prime time in Australia, to ensure the maximum television audience on Nine’s digital channel Gem, as well as the Nine-owned Stan Sport.
“It was a competition decision,” Mesley said. “We weighed that [broadcast] up, along with other factors, to work through the scheduling.
“It’s not a perfect science, but we think this is the best option of putting the biggest game of Super Rugby in Australia this year, in front of as many people as we can, at an opportune time, with a channel mix that worked.”
The decision to put the Brumbies on Saturday night was made before their finishing position was known, and they could have finished second – and hosted the Reds in a blockbuster – had they beaten the Crusaders last week.
Mesley said Super Rugby Pacific faced a complex matrix when deciding on broadcast schedules, with the broadcasters in different countries and with different prime-time zones. Bedding down a rigid finals schedule based on fixtures and not factoring in participants may not always work best.
On the eve of the finals, Mesley lauded the quality of the Super Rugby Pacific competition, with stats showing an uplift in a range of areas, including broadcast viewership, crowd numbers, entertainment value and overall jeopardy.
Fans re-engaged with Super Rugby Pacific in a significant way, with crowd numbers up by six per cent, and Stan Sport reporting a 27 per cent increase in viewership this season.
Almost half of the 77 games were decided by seven points or less, and it was the second-highest-scoring Super Rugby season of all time, with an average of 57.8 points per game. Within games, there was an average of 4.1 lead changes per game, with over half of the games having a lead change in the second half, and more than a quarter having a lead change in the last 10 minutes.
Almost half of the games played saw a reversal of the result in 2024.
“We have seen a more competitive attractive standard of footy on field, and that’s been supported by a better telling of that story, through things like better comms, the fantasy league – just better ways to engage with a better product,” Mesley said.
“For me, you know, those are kind of the key ingredients to what’s been a great year, but we have a lot more to work on in the future. There’s a lot of growth left.”
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