{"id":700978,"date":"2026-05-28T23:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T23:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/700978\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T23:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T23:08:13","slug":"moana-pasifika-rescue-plan-gains-traction-ahead-of-final-super-rugby-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/700978\/","title":{"rendered":"Moana Pasifika rescue plan gains traction ahead of final Super Rugby game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia has made a $600m commitment to <\/a>league in Papua New Guinea<\/a> and set aside $150m to invest in rugby in Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.<\/p>\n

\"MoanaMoana Pasifika’s future has been in doubt. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

But China, USA and Japan are all also on diplomatic spending missions in the Pacific, and potentially Peters was hinting that New Zealand, which houses the largest Pasifika population in the world, is preparing to make some kind of move into high-profile sports diplomacy through Moana Pasifika<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While not as financially well-equipped as the global heavyweights active in the region, the respective governments of Samoa and Tonga have a strong vested interest to see Moana Pasifika survive<\/a>, as it is a critical pathway to the respective national teams.<\/p>\n

It is also a major driver of both countries\u2019 respective economies, with estimates suggesting that remittances from money sent home by Tongan players accounts for almost 50% of GDP.<\/p>\n

More significantly, rugby is so entwined in the social fabric of both nations as to be considered an endemic part of Pasifika culture that it would be seriously damaged if Moana is left to collapse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Herald has estimated that any underwrite agreement would be in the vicinity of $12m-$16m over three years, depending on how effectively the club generated commercial income.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is to be a future, then the answer and the why behind that is not too dissimilar to the first day we put the plan together,\u201d says Nichol.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt goes back to what is Moana Pasifika about. And it is about rugby being used as a vehicle to unite and inspire Pasifika globally \u2013 not just in Samoa, Tonga and New Zealand, but globally.<\/p>\n

\u201cRugby is a vehicle to unite and connect that diaspora. And in the cases of Samoa and Tonga where you have such high levels of migration it is important to create some sense of belonging and connection across the globe.<\/p>\n

\"RobRob Nichol: “The team needs to have a presence in the Islands and be connected to the Islands and be playing games in the Islands.” Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you go back on that basis and say what is the secret and if Moana is going to continue, it has to be by Pasifika for Pasifika. No one else can do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not certain, even if there is some kind of government(s) commitment to underwrite the club, whether that alone will be enough to persuade New Zealand Rugby to grant Moana a stay of execution.<\/p>\n

Since the players were told five weeks ago that owner PMA was pulling out of funding the club, there have been claims of potential saviours waiting in the wings, but to date, nothing detailed or certain to assure them that Moana will survive beyond this weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The players and coaching staff, who are now having their wages paid by NZR as PMA has put the club into liquidation<\/a>, will be buoyed by Nichol\u2019s optimism, but still wary of believing that Moana will be part of Super Rugby next year.<\/p>\n

And their wariness about the future is understandable given the club has never run on a financially firm footing as it has struggled to generate gate revenue and sponsorships.<\/p>\n

Government money could act as a safety net in the short-term, but longer term Moana would need to generate between $7m-$9m of commercial income to be viable.<\/p>\n

That target, based on the belief that Moana generated between $1m-$1.5m of commercial income last year, is ambitious.<\/p>\n

But Nichol believes the past should not serve as an accurate guide to Moana\u2019s future. \u201cWhen it was set up it was capital constrained, on the back of Covid, and it couldn\u2019t be authentically connected to the Islands because of the travel restrictions and logistics, facility issues and the cost,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"GlenGlen Vaihu, of Moana Pasifika, scores a try against the Highlanders. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was never implemented the way we wanted. And then we had PMA come along who said they had the capital and desire to do this.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what\u2019s been proven is that they didn\u2019t have the capability against the business plan that they had. The commercials are all about being able to demonstrate and materialise that connection.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt needs to go back to being about pathways for Pasifika players into the Samoan and Tongan national teams via Moana Pasifika.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team needs to have a presence in the Islands and be connected to the Islands and be playing games in the Islands, but also able to access the right high-performance environment to thrive and then have the ownership, structure and governance expertise to really develop the plan and capitalise on the opportunity from both a rugby and commercial sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoana Pasifika is different to the other clubs in many ways. It is not geographically constrained. It\u2019s a different commercial architecture and a different business plan to other Super Rugby clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The missing piece, potentially, is a motivated Pasifika leadership team to implement the business plan and drive the club\u2019s commercial and rugby aspirations.<\/p>\n

However, given the importance of the club to both Samoa and Tonga and the Pasifika diaspora, it\u2019s probable that a skilled executive team will be relatively easy to find.<\/p>\n

It is understood that NZR wants to make a final decision on Moana\u2019s future no later than the end of June to give the other Super Rugby clubs certainty about next year\u2019s draw and format.<\/p>\n

But Nichol says the steering group are working to a shorter deadline as the real pressure is coming from the diminishing number of players who will be available next year.<\/p>\n

The club has not stood in the way of any contracted player taking alternative offers for next year, and several have already signed elsewhere and more will continue to do so until or unless there is certainty about Moana\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

The existing coaching group \u2013 excluding head coach Tana Umaga, who will be joining the All Blacks \u2013 are likely to be available.<\/p>\n

Moana will play the Brumbies in Canberra on Saturday in what will be their last game of 2026, but it seems more likely now, that it won\u2019t be their last game ever.<\/p>\n

Gregor Paul is one of New Zealand\u2019s most respected rugby writers and columnists.<\/a> He has won multiple awards for journalism and written several books about sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia has made a $600m commitment to league in Papua New Guinea and set aside $150m to invest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64282,22666,64,63,254970,10970,22616,5393,10871,2649,28332,1862,47019,116476,1919,1787,6622,193050,1779,38633,50995,1157,760,341290,26945,161,85,1643,9501,1928,12531,94143,296363,1547],"class_list":["post-700978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-advanced","tag-ahead","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-believe","tag-club","tag-confidence","tag-could","tag-enough","tag-final","tag-gains","tag-game","tag-growing","tag-moana","tag-next","tag-of","tag-part","tag-pasifika","tag-plan","tag-play","tag-prepare","tag-rescue","tag-rugby","tag-salvage","tag-save","tag-season","tag-sports","tag-super","tag-that","tag-their","tag-those","tag-traction","tag-trying","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700978","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=700978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}