Former All Blacks fly-half Lima Sopoaga believes that it is time for NZ Rugby to consider getting rid of Super Rugby and setting up a domestic competition which can rival the north.
It comes in the wake of Moana Pasifika’s demise, with the Auckland-based team set to be axed from Super Rugby Pacific at the end of the campaign.
Moana follow Australian outfit Melbourne Rebels, who went bust in 2024, in exiting the competition, leaving it with just 10 teams for 2027.
Sopoaga now reckons that it is getting to the point where the Antipodean bigwigs should be looking at a complete overhaul of rugby in the southern hemisphere.
With the Top 14 thriving in France, the current Samoa international has suggested building on what they have in the NPC.
‘The players would love a bit less chaos’
“You lose one more team and all of a sudden Super Rugby’s a 10-team competition. It’s kind of like, ‘well, why are playing Super Rugby? Why don’t we have a domestic competition that’s the best in the world?’ You start to have these conversations,” Sopoaga told Sport Nation.
“The players would just love a bit more stability and a bit less chaos and uncertainty because every year Super Rugby seems to change. There seems to be a new format or a new finals system. At some point it’s got to change.
“Coming back and playing in the NPC was honestly one of the most enjoyable times I’ve had in my career. We don’t get the eyes to it because rugby’s so saturated, but maybe it’s time for New Zealand to look at that model and be like, ‘do you know what, we’re going to back our talent because we’re not going to let people leave overseas and play for the All Blacks‘.
“Be similar to what England and France do. They have one of the best domestic competitions in the Top 14, which is all based in France. There’s the PREM, based in England, so can’t we do that here in New Zealand? I would love to see that model.”
Sopoaga has experience of playing around the world having featured for Wasps in England, Lyon in France and Shimizu Blue Sharks in Japan.
The playmaker therefore has knowledge of how those teams and leagues operates, and he believes that New Zealand have been left behind.
New Zealand Rugby complacency
“When I think of some of the cool things around the world I’ve experienced in France, Japan and England, I think in some ways we’ve been left in the stone ages and we haven’t been innovative enough to change with the times,” he added.
“We kind of just thought the All Blacks are the gold standard, they’re our bread and butter, they will bring in revenue and the game is strong here because our number one team is strong, but the psyche of people and how they spend their money has changed.
“Why would somebody want to bring their kids and spend $250 to go to a game on a cold night. You’ve got to give them more than just a game. They can’t just turn up and be like, ‘what happens if the team gets pumped by 40 points?’
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“In France, even with the team I played for, we had people turning up three hours before the game because there was things for people to do.
“They had food trucks, they had a bouncy castle, they had things for kids to kick the ball over posts. They had face painting, affordable food, good drinks – things like that.
“Even if your team lost, you still had a great time, you still felt like, ‘that was worth the money that I spent’. We’re solely relying on the game to be enough for people to spend their money, I just don’t think that’s enough these days.”
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