{"id":611163,"date":"2026-09-25T07:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T07:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/611163\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T07:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T07:56:08","slug":"funding-shortfall-oceania-rugby-7s-cup-in-rotorua-canned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/611163\/","title":{"rendered":"Funding shortfall: Oceania Rugby 7s Cup in Rotorua canned"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img  alt=\"Oceania Rugby was unable to secure funding for the Oceania Rugby 7s Cup in Rotorua. Photo \/ Photosport\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Oceania Rugby was unable to secure funding for the Oceania Rugby 7s Cup in Rotorua. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">The organisation said stakeholder funding commitments, including support from World Rugby, had been met, but Oceania Rugby was unable to satisfy its own funding requirements within the available timeframe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">General manager Frank Puletua said it was not the outcome anyone wanted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI\u2019m sorry for the disappointment it causes our players, teams, fans and the Rotorua community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe pursued every option to deliver this tournament. When it became clear we could not secure the funding needed in the time available, the responsible decision was not to proceed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe own that decision. Our focus now is on looking after the teams, ticket holders and partners affected, and on securing a qualification pathway for our players.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">The organisation said the decision had not been made lightly, acknowledging the planning and preparation undertaken to bring international sevens rugby to Rotorua.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">Oceania Rugby also thanked RotoruaNZ, local partners and community stakeholders for their support, and said it would welcome Rotorua\u2019s consideration as a future host.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">No host has yet been selected for the 2027 Oceania Rugby 7s tournament.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"A location for the 2027 Oceania Rugby 7s Cup has not been selected yet. Photo \/ Photosport\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>A location for the 2027 Oceania Rugby 7s Cup has not been selected yet. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">The organisation said it had already informed participating teams, member unions, partners, suppliers and other affected stakeholders of the decision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">Ticket holders will receive automatic refunds through Ticketmaster within three to five business days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">Oceania Rugby said it remained committed to protecting the future of the competition and ensuring Pacific teams and players continued to have access to international sevens pathways<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/bay-of-plenty-times\/author\/bijou--johnson\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bijou Johnson<\/a> is a multimedia journalist based in Bay of Plenty. A passionate writer and reader, she grew up in Tauranga and developed a love for journalism while exploring various disciplines at university. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Studies from Massey University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oceania Rugby was unable to secure funding for the Oceania Rugby 7s Cup in Rotorua. Photo \/ Photosport&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[105180,74,696,1558,682,20703,25203,10542,738,78,1019,5511,111,139,69,2659,2847,1327,6327,86296,17399,213,16559,4518,2963],"class_list":["post-611163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-7s","tag-after","tag-announced","tag-been","tag-being","tag-cancelled","tag-canned","tag-cup","tag-funding","tag-in","tag-international","tag-just","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-oceania","tag-only","tag-rotorua","tag-rugby","tag-sevens","tag-shortfall","tag-sports","tag-tournament","tag-weeks","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611163","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=611163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}