WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The Blues lost All Blacks flyhalf Beauden Barrett to an apparent long-term injury on the way to a 21-20 loss to the Brumbies on Friday which continued a gloomy start to the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific season for the defending champions.
After four rounds, the Auckland-based Blues are 1-3 and in ninth place in the 11-team tournament which now has a more cut-throat six-team playoffs series.
The Blues’ first loss to the Brumbies in Auckland in 12 years was part of a round in which underdogs prevailed: the Fijian Drua beat the first place Chiefs 28-24 for their seventh-straight win in Lautoka and Moana Pasifika beat the Hurricanes 40-31 for only their second win over a New Zealand opponent.
Barrett’s injury is a concern to the Blues and the All Blacks and it is not yet clear when he might return.
“The injury requires ongoing assessment before determining details of treatment or time required for recovery,” the Blues said in a statement.
The Blues already had 13 players out of action with injuries before Barrett left the field at halftime on Friday.
"These are tough times but we just have to go forward,” Blues coach Vern Cotter said.
It was not just the fact of the Blues’ loss Friday but the nature of it that made it stand out among a glut of high-scoring matches this season.
The first three rounds of the season saw 1011 points scored in 15 matches at an average of 67.4 points per match, an unprecedented figure in the southern hemisphere tournament. The average score of losing teams across the tournament so far has been almost 30 points per match. The average winning score is 37 and the average winning margin is six points.
Extraordinary scores such as the Western Force’s 45-44 win over Moana Pasifika in round one or the Force’s 45-42 win over the Brumbies in round two are becoming more commonplace.
There have been 171 tries scored so far this season at a rate of 11 per match. In comparison, 633 tries were scored in all of the 2024 season — when there were 12 teams — at an average of 7.3 per match and 731 in the 2023 season at 8 per match.
The Blues have stood against that trend and have featured in two of the lowest-scoring matches this season — a 25-14 loss to the Chiefs in round one and Friday’s narrow loss to the Brumbies.
While Moana top the try-scoring tally with 22 tries, the Blues are in eighth place with 13 and the Crusaders last with eight.
It seems clear after four rounds that the Blues, under head coach Cotter, and the Crusaders, under Rob Penney, are playing more structured rugby than other teams. The Blues lead the tournament in tackles made — 817.
The predominance of close and high-scoring games may continue while grounds are hard and handling conditions are good.
Most matches are realizing or are close to the measures laid down by Super Rugby officials to produce a faster game. Those measures aimed to see the ball in play for between 35 and 40 minutes per match, 70 percent of scrums completed on the first hit, the ball available within three seconds in 70 percent of tackles. Ball in play time so far this season has been at the upper end of the game measures projection. Lineouts also are quicker with free kicks from contested not straights.
Defenses seem narrower and also more vulnerable to counter-attacks from kicks, attacks from breakdown turnovers and supported line breaks.
The Blues, now without Barrett, have to adapt.
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AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
Steve Mcmorran, The Associated Press
