The curtain is finally falling on the 2025 Australian rugby season, marking one of the biggest seasons for the sport in years, with World Cups, Lions tours and historic wins.
With such a jam-packed year coming to a close, comes the opportunity to look back on how much rugby Australian fans enjoyed across the season.
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Rugby.com.au breaks down the 12 biggest Australian rugby stories of the 2025 season, starting with:
Starting with the domestic women’s game, the 2025 Super Rugby Women’s season saw the closest in the competition’s history.
All sides came out and delivered big results - but ultimately, it would be the benchmark setters in the NSW Waratahs who would emerge victorious.
The women in sky blue bounced back from an opening round loss to the Fijiana Drua to top the ladder and defeat the Queensland Reds 43–21 in the final, going back-to-back for the second time in their history.
The season also marked the inaugural Super Rugby Champions final, which saw the champion of Super Rugby Aupiki face off against the champion of Super Rugby Women’s.
Super Rugby Pacific had a big year on the Australian front, from sides breaking try-scoring records and droughts in Fiji and Auckland, to the launch of the domestic Super Rugby AUS competition.
However, it was the final of the Super Rugby Pacific season that took the crown, with the Crusaders returning to the top of the pile to win their 13th title after a disappointing opening season under Rob Penney in 2024.
Defeating the Chiefs 16-12 in the final, the Crusaders overcame multiple challenges across the season to win, with Wallaby veteran James O'Connor proving a vital weapon in several key victories and becoming a fan favourite in Christchurch.
Coming off the bench in the closing stages of the final, the victory was O’Connor’s first Super Rugby title, going with a 2021 Super Rugby AU title as Reds captain.
While the Lions tour on its own was a massive event, two specific fixtures outside of the three Wallabies tests drew a lot of attention.
The return of a combined Australian-New Zealand outfit for the first time since the 1989 series was one of the most discussed fixtures of the tour, with players and fans on both sides of the Tasman hoping a close match might build momentum for more ‘ANZAC XV’ fixtures.
Unfortunately, it was not to be as the Lions produced their biggest win on the tour with a 48-0 thumping in Adelaide - their biggest victory margin ever since their 64-0 victory over Combined Country in Newcastle in the 2013 series.
However, the tour's surprise result came at Marvel Stadium, with the maiden clash between the First Nations & Pasifika XV.
With several players also part of the AUNZ Invitational XV and hungry to make up for Adelaide, the result was a thrilling clash, the Lions ultimately prevailing, 24-19.
Despite the loss, the standout performances of key stars and the fight shown have seen a groundswell of support for the First Nations & Pasifika XV concept to continue in the future.
The Wallaroos produced one of their biggest results ever, defeating Samoa 73-0 in a ruthless performance that ultimately proved critical in qualifying for the quarter final.
It was the Wallaroos’ largest ever victory at a World Cup, surpassing their previous record win of 62–0 against South Africa in 2010.
Desiree Miller scored three tries, and Adiana Talakai and Caitlyn Halse nabbed two each, while Cecilia Smith earned player of the match for one of her best performances ever in gold at inside centre.
Speaking of World Cups, the recent unveiling of the 2027 Rugby World Cup draw has set tongues talking across the rugby world, with the Wallabies learning their fate after a difficult Spring Tour saw them finish outside of the top band of qualification.
The result is several historic clashes, with the hosts set to play maiden fixtures against Chile and Hong Kong China.
The biggest story, however, is a first-ever Bledisloe pool match, with the Wallabies set to go head-to-head with their biggest rivals, the All Blacks, the winners likely favourites to top the pool.
The fixture announcement is set to dominate Trans-Tasman rugby discussions for the next two years, with the fixture list for the tournament set to be announced in February 2026.
Australia U18s gave rugby fans plenty of cheer about throughout late September and early October, completing a 2-0 series sweep of New Zealand Schools at Viking Park in Canberra.
However, it was not just that the U18s stretched their winning streak to a historic three-wins-in-a-row over their rivals, but it was the manner in which they did so.
The U18s put the Kiwis to the sword, winning 81-48 in their first clash before surviving a fightback in the second clash to win 55-33.
With the Australian Schoolboys side also clean sweeping Fiji on the same days, the results were noted on both sides of the Tasman. With multiple stars in the U18s side now locked into contracts with Super Rugby sides, the results bode well for the future of Australian rugby.
Check back in tomorrow as we complete our countdown of the biggest stories in Australian Rugby across 2025, detailing 6-1.
