Sam BruceApr 14, 2026, 03:14 AM ET
CloseSam was brought up on long drives and the dusty fields of north-west New South Wales, where he developed his love of rugby from an early age. He joined ESPN after a five-year stint heading up Fox Sports Australia’s digital rugby coverage.
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Moana Pasifika’s time in Super Rugby Pacific will reportedly come to an end at the completion of this season, reducing the competition to just 10 teams.
According to a News Corp report on Tuesday afternoon, Moana’s playing group was earlier in the day informed that the franchise would not play on next season, due to a lack of funding.
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It means that after starting out as a 12-team competition in 2022, Super Rugby Pacific will from 2027 be contested by only 10 sides, with Melbourne Rebels having been wound up at the end of the 2024 season amid crippling financial debts.
Owners of the Rebels continue their legal action against Rugby Australia, though the national body is confident it has the firmer standing and will win the case when it heads to court in Melbourne.
ESPN has approached Super Rugby and New Zealand Rugby officials for comment.
Augustine Pulu of Moana Pasifika is tackled. Michael Bradley/Getty Images
Noise around Moana’s future has been bubbling away for some time, with a proposal at one point even suggesting the franchise could have merged with the Rebels. But concerns grew around the team’s future over the offseason when questions around the financial stability of majority owners Pasifika Medical Associate began to surface.
The expansion franchise, that was originally set up by New Zealand Rugby with the help of World Rugby, enjoyed its best season last year when All Blacks star Ardie Savea signed on as their prized recruit, the back-rower later declaring he was “home” after multiple sensational performances that later earned him the competition’s player of the year award.
But Savea’s decision to spend the 2026 season in Japan, under new All Blacks coach Dave Rennie, immediately raised doubts about Moana’s ability to compete consistently in Super Rugby this season, with the team now having so far managed just an opening win over the Fijian Drua through the first nine rounds of the season.
Coach Tana Umaga has meanwhile signed on with the All Blacks as a member of Rennie’s staff, meaning the franchise would have been looking for a new leader beyond this season regardless. Umaga earlier in the year hit out at local rivals, the Blues, saying the franchise did “not want us here”.
Moana had also struggled to nail down a homebase of their own, playing at Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium, in Pukekohe, Rotorua and Albany throughout their four-year existence. The team had taken a game to Samoa and was hoping to play one match in Tonga this year, only for the plan to be scrubbed when a major sponsor was unable to be found.
If Moana are confirmed to be headed for the scrapheap it will leave Super Rugby with yet another challenging midseason narrative, right at a time when it is getting ready to celebrate “Super Round” as the official opening act of Christchurch’s One New Zealand Stadium in 10 days’ time.
Moana will in the meantime head to Sydney on Friday night for their clash with the Waratahs, a match that will be played in front of Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle.
Just where Savea, who had insisted he would return to Moana in 2027, might land remains to be seen, but former franchise the Hurricanes would be favoured to land his prized signature.
If there is a silver lining for Super Rugby, it may be that the competition, consisting of 10 teams, could move to a full 18-game home-and-away tournament, which would please club bosses who have long bemoaned just the seven home games and the associated gate revenue.
The potential end of Moana comes at a time when the NRL is aggressively pushing rugby league across the Pacific, desperate to build its market share after the success of Samoa and Tonga at Test level.
Part of Australian Government’s $600 million package set aside for the Papua New Guinea expansion NRL team has reportedly been instead carved off for the growth of rugby league in Samoa, Fiji and Tonga, which has led Rugby Australia to push for greater funding for the 15-player game through the region.
Meanwhile, Fijian Drua coach Glen Jackson has announced he will not take up the one-year option attached to his two-year deal. The Drua, who sit in 10th position through nine rounds, have only once made the finals and have struggled for form away from Fiji.