The Super Rugby Team of the Week has representatives from nine of the teams after around that saw the defending champions, the Crusaders, continue to emerge as the number one rated team. The Lions and Jaguares strengthened their positions in South Africa with the latter set to make their first finals series appearance. The Waratahs stumbled in New Zealand and the Rebels closed to within a point at the top of the Australian Conference.

Jaguares wing Ramiro Moyano was instrumental in his team's victory over the Sharks in Buenos Aires. He made six clean breaks, scored three tries and ran for 120 metres to take out Player of the Week.

 

Thomas Banks

Brumbies

Beat a round-high eight defenders, made 10 carries for 109m gained, three clean breaks, and crossed for a try.

Toni Pulu

Chiefs

Assisted one try and scored two of his own, beat six defenders, made three clean breaks, and made 7/7 tackles.

Anton Lienert-Brown

Chiefs

Finished with three clean breaks, five defenders beaten, and 14 carries for 56m gained, as well as making 7/8 tackles and winning a turnover.

Charlie Ngatai

Chiefs

Made three offloads, two clean breaks, and beat six defenders, as well as gaining 101m from 14 carries and making eight tackles.

Ramiro Moyano

Jaguares

Made a round-high six clean breaks, the equal most ever by a Jaguares player, gained 120m from 13 carries, made one try assist, and scored a hat-trick of tries.

Nicolas Sanchez

Jaguares

Kick four goals from as many attempts, made 12 carries for 55m gained, including a clean break and an offload, and made 11 kicks in general play.

Joe Powell

Brumbies

Made a brace of try assists, two offloads, beat two defenders and gained 35 metres from just four carries.

Amanaki Mafi

Rebels

Made a round-high 20 carries, gaining 116m, beating four defenders, and also made 11/11 tackles.

Ardie Savea

Hurricanes

Made 17 tackles, the second most of any player not to miss a single attempt, one try assist, a turnover win, and seven carries.

Roelof Smit

Bulls

Won three lineouts and two turnovers, made 11/12 tackles, six carries for 29m gained, and crossed for a try.

Lourens Erasmus

Lions

Won a team-high eight lineouts, made 8/9 tackles, and beat five defenders from 12 carries.

Brodie Retallick

Chiefs

Won a joint high three turnovers, made 10/11 tackles, two clean breaks, two offloads, and 13 carries as well as crossing for a try.

Sekope Kepu

Waratahs

Made 11 tackles without missing, won one turnover, made two offloads, and four carries for 21m gained.

Corne Fourie

Lions

Won three turnovers, made 15/15 successful lineout throws, 6/6 tackles, 14 carries, and crossed for a brace of tries.

Wilco Louw

Stormers

Made 15/17 tackles and won a turnover in his side's narrow loss to the Lions.

 

Opta Index: How does it work

The Opta Index allows genuine opportunities to compare and contrast both player and team strengths and weaknesses across Super Rugby, providing real insights pre-game as follows: 

After every match Opta completes a video analysis of every touch of the ball. Each action in the match is awarded a points value depending on the relative importance of the action. So for example, a try scores more points than a tackle, but a player loses points for a missed tackle.

The points are then weighted against the score at the time when the action took place (higher points if the score is closer), the time in the match (higher points at the start of the match) and the position on the pitch where it took place (higher points for actions closer to the goal line).

The player is then given a score for the match by adding up all his actions while he was on the field. The total match score is then weighted to take account of the strength of the opposition so that performances across many matches can be judged fairly.