{"id":351277,"date":"2026-03-27T22:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T22:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/351277\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T22:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T22:08:12","slug":"tech-blip-spares-moana-pasifika-fans-from-seeing-loss-to-highlanders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/351277\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech blip spares Moana Pasifika fans from seeing loss to Highlanders"},"content":{"rendered":"

A technical issue led to the last 20 minutes of Moana Pasifika’s clash with the Highlanders not being broadcast to audiences.<\/p>\n

With the score at 39-19 in favour of the visitors, the lights and broadcast went out in Albany.<\/p>\n

Perhaps a fortunate thing for Moana fans who were spared from seeing their side slump to a sixth straight loss.<\/p>\n

After liaising with Sanzar, the decision was made to continue the match with no Television Match Officials, and no live broadcast.<\/p>\n

The score was not added to after the interruption, the Highlanders easing to the win in front of a modest crowd.<\/p>\n

Super Rugby’s breakout star in 2026 kicked things off for the visitors, Caleb Tangitau busting his way through some feeble defence to put his side on the board.<\/p>\n

The All Black hopeful went back-to-back after dropping one over the line moments earlier, making no mistake to bag his brace in the left-hand corner.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Sky TV camera operator looks on as a power cut disables transmission during the round seven Super Rugby match between Moana Pasifika and Highlanders at North Harbour Stadium, on March 27, 2026, in Auckland, New Zealand. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

Jona Nareki went in from close range for the Highlanders’ third, driving another nail in before the break, Jack Taylor rumbling over from a dominant line-out maul and a dominant 27-0 half-time lead.<\/p>\n

Things got worse for Moana after oranges with twin yellow cards left their defensive line incredibly vulnerable.<\/p>\n

Veveni Lasaqa was the first to take advantage as he strolled over against a 13-man Moana.<\/p>\n

The hosts responded in stunning fashion, Millennium Sanerivi finishing a superb interchange.<\/p>\n

It was back-to-back for Maona, Allan Craig barging over when the Sky broadcast was cut.<\/p>\n

A livestream was run by Moana media manager Matt Manukia on Instagram, which quickly gained over a thousand viewers.<\/p>\n

No scoring plays were missed, as the Highlanders closed out a comfortable victory to avenge last year’s shock loss to Moana in Dunedin.<\/p>\n

rnz.co.nz<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A technical issue led to the last 20 minutes of Moana Pasifika’s clash with the Highlanders not being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,52362,151877,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-351277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-highlanders","tag-moana-pasifika","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}