{"id":253720,"date":"2025-10-31T18:08:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T18:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/253720\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T18:08:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T18:08:07","slug":"new-zealand-rugby-threatens-legal-action-over-nrl-team-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/253720\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand Rugby threatens legal action over NRL team name"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are several examples of Super Rugby teams sharing a name with other Southern Hemisphere sporting franchises. The Blues brand is also used by NSW (rugby league and cricket) and the Carlton Blues (AFL), while the Hurricanes share a name with the Hobart-based Big Bash (cricket) franchise.<\/p>\n

Vanuatu United FC, the soccer club who will compete in the new FIFA-backed OFC Pro League, are also known as the Chiefs.<\/p>\n

There has long been a rivalry between rugby league and union when it comes to signing up the best footballing talent. Both codes have taken a strong stance against Rugby 360, with the NRL threatening decade-long bans for players and agents who engage in talks<\/a> with the proposed breakaway league.<\/p>\n

The rival codes called a temporary truce, of sorts, when two of Sydney\u2019s best junior nurseries, Barker College (rugby) and St Gregory\u2019s College (league), participated in a hybrid<\/a> match last week.<\/p>\n

The key parties behind the Papua New Guinea club announced last month that the team would be known as the Chiefs, picking the name ahead of the Pythons.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore there was a prime minister, and a King or Queen in England, the sovereign head within the tribe was the chief,\u201d Marape told the PNG board and NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our country, about 30 per cent [of tribes] are matrilineal, so it fits in well when girls run on as Chiefs because there is a traditional context in our history.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn East New Britain and New Ireland, women were chiefs. They hold land rights, they make the final decisions, so the name is fitting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe name just blends in well with the authenticity of where we came from as a nation of so many tribes, united into one nation in 1975, and gifted by Australia. It has a strong meaning to our authentic identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

NZ Rugby owns the Chiefs brand, but the Chiefs themselves have spent a considerable amount of time, money, and energy building it over the past three decades. Both parties are determined to safeguard what they have built.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are several examples of Super Rugby teams sharing a name with other Southern Hemisphere sporting franchises. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-253720","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}