‘Looking at all options’: Super Rugby Pacific weighing big calls on 2027 structure

Tuesday, 2 June 2026

Super Rugby Pacific chief executive Jack Mesley says all options are on the table for next year’s competition format.

Super Rugby Pacific boss Jack Mesley says “all options” are on the table for the structure of the 2027 competition, and wants a draw for next season released no later than August.

Moana Pasifika’s situation is set to dictate whether big changes are made, including the potential for separate New Zealand/Australian conferences, but don’t get excited about more Sunday afternoon footy ‒ that is just a pipe dream.

Moana signed off their season in stunning style on Saturday, beating the Brumbies in Canberra, for what was their only win of the year outside their round-one victory in Fiji against the Drua.

The franchise was last week placed into liquidation, six weeks after it announced it would disband at the end of its fifth season due to the costs of running the team being too high for its owner, Pasifika Medical Association (PMA).

However, with New Zealand Rugby stepping in to pay Moana salaries until the end of July, rescue efforts are ongoing. But while Mesley believed there was no hard and fast deadline around a decision on the potential revival, he told the Waikato Times he wanted some clarity pretty quickly, given what may lay ahead.

Moana Pasifika captain Miracle Faiilagi embraces Semisi Tupou Ta'eiloa after their loss to the Reds in their final home game.

“Clearly from a competition point of view we’ve got a lot to do for 2027… so fair to say I’m putting a bit of pressure on that timeline,” he said.

“So we need to continue to move at pace, but we’ve got to make sure that we give it the best chance of finding new ownership at the same time.”

After the draw for this season was released in late August last year, a month earlier than the previous season, Mesley wants it “definitely no later than that, hopefully earlier”, and while the retention of Moana would see status-quo on the 11-team format, a reduction to 10 teams opens up other possibilities.

Would a full home-and-away regular season (18 games) be too much? What about the playoffs format ‒ reduced to four, or five teams?

And conferences? That model would ensure a finals presence in Australia, something that is now missing in this weekend’s first round, and likely throughout, the playoffs this year, for the first time, after Kiwi sides filled up the top three, and even fourth, spots on the ladder.

Crowds in New Zealand have been largely very healthy, but more Sunday afternoon Super footy does not look to be an option.

“It’s a big market, a really important market for us, to engage with fans, to build eyeballs and drive value. So it is disappointing,” Mesley admitted.

“I don’t think there’s any secret in Rugby Australia and Stan have in the past have been proponents of a conference system, for those reasons. But for as many people that like it, there’s probably as many that hate it, right?

“We’re turning over every rock, so we’re looking at all of those options.

“Clearly, 10 [teams] is a little simpler in terms of byes. How many do we need?

“How many games do we play in round robin? Right now it’s taking us 16 weeks to play 14 games, so there’s options in and around that.”

Sunday afternoon fixtures, though, while a delight for many punters, and Mesley himself, are largely fanciful in the current climate, he admitted.

Angus Gardner and the referees have had several law variations to preside over in Super Rugby Pacific this year.

There were four Sunday matches this year, up from the three last year, though two of those were part of Super Round in Christchurch.

“The hard thing is as we’ve reduced in size [from 12 teams to 11 from the 2025 season that Mesley came in prior to] and we have fewer games a weekend, it becomes harder to have a Sunday game, because we’ve got to hit those high points for our broadcast partners,” he said.

“I love them, I’d certainly love to see more of them, so we’ve got to continue to work with our broadcast partners on that.

“And then also turnaround times [makes it difficult], because if you play on a Sunday, then you can’t play Friday, and with the complexity of the draw, that restraint is material on our fixturing, particularly with our travel.”

Crowd numbers, though, at least on this side of the ditch, have Mesley upbeat. Despite the high-flying Hurricanes ‒ who he identified as a major positive of 2026 given the way they had played with their “intent, positivity, desire to hold the ball and find space” ‒ drawing some underwhelming-looking numbers (an average of 14,000 for Wellington games), Mesley said crowds had, across New Zealand, year-on-year, seen double-digit growth across most teams. There were similar increases last season.

Mesley, meanwhile, is also largely pleased with where the ‘shape of game’ is at, on the back of the law variations introduced this season. Though do expect some tweaks for next year.

“The 50-22 pass-back, we think that’s been a success. The quick-tap stuff, we’re very happy with, we think that we might just need to look at the scrum and the halfback, particularly five metres out,” he said, in reference to what has proven to be an impossible defending task when a forward pack and opposition halfback are taken right out of play.

“We’re generally pretty happy. There’s still been a few times, for mine, we’re seeing a lot of people not wanting to hold possession in the middle third of the ground, which we’ve got a few conversations about.”