Three months out from the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific season teams are making final changes to their player rosters...
Hurricanes
Breakthrough Olympic Seven's winger Fehi Fineanganofo has signed a two-year contract with the Hurricanes for 2025 and 2026. Born and raised in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland, Fineanganofo was a schoolboy star. Plucked out of prestigious rugby school, Auckland Grammar, he earned his first representative callup for the New Zealand Schools side in 2020.
Speaking of signing his inaugural Super Rugby Pacific contract with the Hurricanes, Fineanganofo said: “This means a lot to me and my family. I know they’re proud of me, and that means everything. They’re who I do this for.”
Hurricanes Head Coach Clark Laidlaw spoke fondly of his time with Fineanganofo at the All Black Seven’s, and was thrilled to be welcoming him to the Hurricanes whānau:
“I met Fehi as an 18-year-old originally. He went through a really tough couple of years with that ACL injury, but the way he worked through rehab to get a full contract with the All Black Seven’s which culminated in his Olympics selection really turned our heads.”
“Both his sevens and the way he’s played for Bay of Plenty really excites us. He’s a power athlete who can play in the midfield as well as on the wing. Fehi and the coaches are looking forward to having a strong pre-season together. We know he had a few options out there, and we’re super grateful he chose to join us.”
ACT Brumbies
Mercurial outside back Ben O’Donnell [pictured] has signed a one-year contract extension with the Safeguard Global ACT Brumbies until the end of the 2025 season. O’Donnell, 29, first joined the club in September 2022 after a three-year spell in Ireland with Connacht, having previously represented the Australia Sevens team 95 times, winning Australia Sevens Player of the Year in 2018.
He has gone on to make eight appearances for the Brumbies, scoring five tries in the process, after suffering a serious injury in April 2023 against the Hurricanes that ruled him out for a year.
O’Donnell was delighted to put pen to paper on a new deal that keeps him in the nation’s capital, thanking the coaching staff for their support while revealing his goals of playing more minutes in the upcoming Super Rugby Pacific competition.
“I’m over the moon to sign on for another year with the ACT Brumbies,” O’Donnell said.
“It’s almost a year ago when I started talking to the coaches about extending my deal and I’m grateful to them for giving me another year. I missed most of last season due to injury, so I’m looking to bounce back next season and give my best to the team.
“My goals for 2025 are to secure a starting spot and go deeper into the Super Rugby competition with the boys. We’ve been to the semi-finals three years in a row, so we need to make a final now and make all our hard work count.
“We’ve got an unreal squad retained from last year and we’ve picked up a couple of nice additions from the (Melbourne) Rebels. It’s a really exciting time for us.”
ACT Brumbies head coach Stephen Larkham praised O’Donnell’s skillset and the value he brings to the club on inking his new deal.
“It has been great to see Ben put multiple performances together this year. He has shown how good a rugby player he is,” Larkham said.
“Added to this Ben has all the right attributes to be a Brumbies player, hard-working, intelligent, respectful and very competitive. We are very excited to have him on board for next season.”
