Super Rugby crisis: Why Moana Pasifika’s survival matters for NZ Rugby – Alice Soper

Alice Soper

Contributing Sports Writer·nzme·

3 Jun, 2026 05:01 PM4 mins to read

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Moana Pasifika faces an existential crisis. Photo / Photosport

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Once a year, a storyline will emerge asking questions about the financial viability of our national obsession. This year, the story is centred on the fate of Moana Pasifika. The future of the newest domestic men’s team in Super Rugby hangs in the balance. Each of these stories hinges on
the same central question: can the game afford this competition?

It has not been possible to close the 30-year head start afforded to Moana Pasifika’s rivals in five short seasons. Despite seed funding from World Rugby and Sport New Zealand, the team were entering a world that looked very different from 1996.

Back then, Super Rugby netted a 10-year broadcast deal worth just over half a billion dollars to kick the competition off. With this money in the bank and a timeline that offered security, other sponsors soon came on board. As the competition found its footing, the overheads were still relatively low. In 1996, the Hurricanes were based in dorms in Palmerston North, a far cry from the luxury of the NZCIS complex in Upper Hutt today. There was energy around the launch of the new league, which made seeding storylines easy as the marketing campaigns wrote themselves.

Compare that to year one for Moana Pasifika. Entering the competition after Covid-19, they had to play a ridiculous schedule of catch-up rugby, at one point playing six games in 21 days. Their home ground of Mt Smart was already synonymous with the Warriors. Despite earlier agreements, they soon found themselves looking for another home base. North Harbour Stadium was never quite the right fit and Pukekohe was another long trip for their fans.

All this disruption made the team’s impact all the more impressive. You can mark the dramatic uptick in the visibility of players’ culture before and after the addition of Moana Pasifika. Encouraging their players to wear cultural dress for their headshots, we now commonly see the flags of Tonga, Samoa and Fiji pop up in the background of all team photos. The Super Rugby Culture Round, introduced in 2023, was another attempt to capture some of that Moana magic.