{"id":498129,"date":"2026-02-23T04:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T04:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/498129\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T04:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T04:33:11","slug":"super-rugby-pacific-moana-pasifika-abandon-plans-to-host-chiefs-in-tonga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/498129\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Rugby Pacific: Moana Pasifika abandon plans to host Chiefs in Tonga"},"content":{"rendered":"

The club had been speaking to numerous sponsors to help cover the costs, but couldn\u2019t get a deal over the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very sad because we are absolutely committed to bringing games to the Pacific,\u201d Sorensen told Newstalk ZB.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve taken a game to Tonga previously, we\u2019ve taken a game to Samoa and we believe quite passionately that this should be part of the Super Rugby fixture, but we\u2019re unable to do it this year just in terms of the economic consequences for us as a club.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sorensen confirmed that Moana Pasifika are determined to make playing in the islands a regular fixture.<\/p>\n

Tonga Rugby Union chief executive Aisea Aholelei said it was unfortunate Moana Pasifika could not make it to Tonga.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoana is in very similar circumstances to Tonga Rugby Union,\u201d Aholelei said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever we want to play a game here in Tonga, it\u2019s always a loss-making exercise unless a significant sponsor comes our way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moana Pasifika had wanted to play in Tonga last year, also against the Chiefs<\/a>, but floodlight installation delays forced the game to be switched to Pukekohe.<\/p>\n

Moana Pasifika currently sit seventh on the Super Rugby Pacific ladder after two rounds. They began their season with an upset win over the Fijian Drua in Lautoka, before being thumped by the Hurricanes in Wellington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The club had been speaking to numerous sponsors to help cover the costs, but couldn\u2019t get a deal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[150503,9490,64,63,21677,2685,5386,92809,21695,250721,1862,250720,191,25663,4717,116476,10956,193050,1917,760,4215,9409,28331,87653,85,112289,1643,3018,319,18559,1547],"class_list":["post-498129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-abandon","tag-after","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-being","tag-chief","tag-chiefs","tag-debbie","tag-executive","tag-forced","tag-game","tag-heartbroken","tag-home","tag-host","tag-in","tag-moana","tag-pacific","tag-pasifika","tag-plans","tag-rugby","tag-says","tag-scrap","tag-second","tag-sorensen","tag-sports","tag-straight","tag-super","tag-team","tag-to","tag-tonga","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498129","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=498129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}