Future of Moana Pasifika ‘really approaching D-Day’ - players association

The Rugby Players Association is optimistic the Moana Pasifika team can be saved, but there needs to be a resolution in coming weeks.

The Super Rugby franchise was placed into liquidation last week, and played what could be their final game on Saturday, with a 21-19 win against the Brumbies.

It is facing more than $8 million in creditor claims, according to the first report from liquidators appointed to the collapsed Super Rugby franchise, including a $2.75 million loan from the government through Crown entity Sport NZ.

Rugby Players Association head Rob Nichol told Checkpoint he believed the struggling team could be saved, but it was “really approaching D-Day, to be honest”.

“To have a plan and talent pathway running in time for 2027, the team would need to be looking at players and coaches this month and ‘locking and loading’ them,” Nichol said.

Sponsors and content partners would also need to be confirmed later this month, and the competition itself needed to know whether it was dealing with 10 teams or 11 teams, he said.

“I would say within the next two weeks, there needs to be a firm commitment one way or the other, the next two and a half to three weeks max.”

He said there was a lot of work already underway, including a solid plan on the table that could be traced to the original vision for Moana Pasifika.

Samoa and Tonga were best placed to host the licence, and those governments were “definitely” interested in stepping in, Nichol said.

“If Super Rugby Pacific or New Zealand and Australia want another team in the competition from Hawaii or Papua New Guinea or another Australian team or New Zealand team, they would do a license for that team, but this license was always very specific - 80 percent of this playing squad are to be eligible for Samoan and Tongan international representation and for those national teams - that’s quite specific. So it really does belong with Samoa and Tonga.”

The team was created to celebrate Pasifika identity, while providing an economic boost, he said.

“It’s about connecting Pasifika and being able to ensure that in a couple of nations with huge migration and their people spread all over the world, they’re able to celebrate their identity and stay connected.

“And it’s about economics. If you can play a couple of games in Samoa and a couple of games in Tonga each year, that’s good activity and it’s good economic engagement from a tourism perspective showcasing the islands and also from the people that will travel there for the games,” Nichol said.

‘A pretty tough brief’

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters on Tuesday said the government had instructed officials to work with NZ Rugby and other stakeholders to explore options to keep the club going.

However, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Wednesday cast doubt on the prospect of further government funding for the team, saying Peters would be bringing options to Cabinet.

“But I think it’s a pretty tough deal for the taxpayer of New Zealand to sit there and say we’re going to fund a professional sports team.

“The Labour government piled $4m in and it’s all gone and I think any decision to make an investment like that would need Cabinet decision and I think it would be a pretty tough brief to ministers.”

Finance Minister Nicola Willis also said Peters was simply looking into the options.

“And he fully understands that the bar for any investment of public money is quite a high one and it would have to meet those rigourous tests, but I don’t blame him for having a look to see if there’s anything the government can do.

“We are conscious of course that there has been previous funding put in that hasn’t yet been paid back.”

She said she had not seen any business case that stacked up, but she would keep an open mind.

“We need to be really careful before we would look at something like that,” she said.

“We’re a government that wants to prioritise our health service, our education service, public infrastructure, those are core things. Yes, we care deeply also about our Pacific neighbours and we love our rugby - but we’ve got to make sure every dollar we spend delivers maximum value.”

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