{"id":323750,"date":"2021-09-24T03:53:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-24T03:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=63967"},"modified":"2021-09-24T03:53:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-24T03:53:00","slug":"moana-pasifika-and-fiji-drua-overcome-super-rugby-hurdles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/09\/24\/moana-pasifika-and-fiji-drua-overcome-super-rugby-hurdles\/","title":{"rendered":"Moana Pasifika and Fiji Drua overcome Super Rugby hurdles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Sri Krishnamurthi for Asia-Pacific Report<\/em><\/p>\n<p>While the All Blacks and Springboks will play their 100th test on Saturday (25\/9\/2021) both Pacific rugby teams are preparing for next year\u2019s Super Rugby Pacific and a journey into the unknown.<\/p>\n<p>The Fiji Drua and Moana Pasifika will debut in the 12 team-competition which includes five teams each from Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p>While the Fiji Drua were awarded their unconditional licence back in April and are yet to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fijitimes.com\/fijian-drua-names-5-players-to-debut-in-super-rugby-pacific-season\/\">complete their roster<\/a>, Moana Pasifika revealed this week they have just eight places remaining to be filled in their 38-man squad since being granted their licence in July.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fijitimes.com\/fijian-drua-names-5-players-to-debut-in-super-rugby-pacific-season\/\"><strong>READ MORE:\u00a0<\/strong>Fijian Drua names 5 players to debut in Super Rugby Pacific season<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Interim chief executive officer of Moana Pasifika, Pelenato Sakalia told RNZ Pacific Sport, \u201cwe\u2019ll take our time on filling those eight additional spots, but I\u2019d like to think we\u2019ve broken the back of the squad, [because] 30 out of 38 is quite a significant chunk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They are likely to name Aaron Mauger, former head coach of the Otago Highlanders, as coach.<\/p>\n<p>Mauger deputised for Tana Umaga when Moana Pasifika came together last year in a one-off game against the New Zealand M\u0101ori which they lost 28-21.<\/p>\n<p>Like Fiji Drua they are yet to confirm their coaches although Fiji Drua was to have named their coach this week.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cotter a strong option<\/strong><br \/>\nOne strong option remains Vern Cotter, the former head coach of Scotland, who is the current Flying Fijians coach and could perform both those roles.<\/p>\n<p>However, Fiji Drua will have to rely on mainly Fiji or regional based players to fill their roster and they are to have a home base in Australia for the first season.<\/p>\n<p>Fiji Drua\u2019s interim chief executive officer Brian Thorburn said the delay in confirming the competition structure had resulted in not being able to sign up players based in Europe.<\/p>\n<p>He told RNZ Pacific Sport: &#8220;As a result, many of the guys that were on our original list who were playing in Europe had to choose between a firm commitment and opportunity in Europe versus an unconfirmed commitment coming out of us, and we just couldn&#8217;t sign anybody.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut having said that, every cloud has a silver lining. We\u2019ve got a great pipeline of talent, that\u2019s one of the wonderful things, and we are very happy with the guys that we&#8217;re signing be they local provincial rugby or from the sevens sphere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur aspiration is for every player that plays for Drua to be eligible for national duty, but in some cases, we\u2019ll have to compromise that for the first year or two.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Australian-based Thorburn said there would be times when would have to play a \u201cjoker\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8216;Joker&#8217; possibilities<\/strong><br \/>\n\u201cWe&#8217;ll have to contract the odd what we call a joker, where somebody who is not otherwise eligible to play for Fiji, might have to fill an area of weakness for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both he and Fiji Rugby CEO John O\u2019Connor admitted the new rugby franchise would have to contract players not eligible for the Flying Fijians.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are starting on a journey and our players here are amateurs. We are transiting them into the professional environment. It\u2019s our first year and we will continue to grow and learn as we participate in the competition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is why we are not competing with those players who are on six-figure contracts in Europe,\u201d O\u2019Connor told <em>The Fiji Times.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Fiji Drua announced their first five players this week with exciting utility back Napoloni Bolaca, an Olympic gold medalist, among their first signings.<\/p>\n<p>Others were Flying Fijians\u2019 hooker Tevita Ikanivere, winger Onisi Ratave who played for the Bay of Plenty in their unsuccessful bid for the Ranfurly Shield against Hawke\u2019s Bay, loose forward Nemani Nagusa and halfback Simione Kuruvoli.<\/p>\n<p>While it appears that the South Auckland-based franchise Moana Pasifika aren\u2019t having recruitment issues, they have nonetheless faced some hurdles of their own.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NZ link criticised<\/strong><br \/>\nThe involvement of the New Zealand Rugby Player Association (NZRPA) chief executive Rob Nichol, who has said three current, potential or former All Blacks can be selected for Moana Pasifika, has drawn the ire of Pacific Rugby Players\u2019 Welfare boss Daniel Leo.<\/p>\n<p>He commented on Twitter that the NZRPA was there to look after the welfare of New Zealand players and shouldn\u2019t be involved in the Moana Pasifika process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTheir mandate is to advance the NZ players at any cost. Not Pacific Island players,\u2019\u2019 Leo posted on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact they are key stakeholders in Moana and one of their employees is the general manager has alarm bells ringing.\u2019\u2019 He was referring to Kevin Senio, former All Blacks halfback, who is the director of Rugby Moana Pasifika.<\/p>\n<p>Senio responded to Dan Leo\u2019s claims when he appeared on Sky Sport\u2019s <em>Breakdown<\/em> show.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Eighty percent of the team will have to be eligible and\/or have played for Samoa, Tonga or Fiji,&#8221; Senio told <em>The Breakdown<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For those who are going to align themselves into Moana Pasifika, you can&#8217;t play for the All Blacks or Australia.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Feeder franchise<\/strong><br \/>\nBack in April when former Wallaby turned rugby commentator Morgan Turinui wrote in <em>The Sydney Morning Herald<\/em> that Moana Pasifika would become a feeder franchise for the All Blacks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo put it simply, Moana Pasifika look to be another NZ franchise who will funnel players through to the All Blacks,\u201d Turinui wrote.<\/p>\n<p>World Rugby has confirmed a \u00a31.2m (NZ$2.3 million) annual funding package for an initial three-year period to support the two franchises, Fiji Drua and Moana Pasifika, in joining Super Rugby from 2022<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2021\/09\/24\/moana-pasifika-and-fiji-drua-overcome-super-rugby-hurdles\/\">Asia Pacific Report<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Sri Krishnamurthi for Asia-Pacific Report While the All Blacks and Springboks will play their 100th test on Saturday (25\/9\/2021) both Pacific rugby teams are preparing for next year\u2019s Super Rugby Pacific and a journey into the unknown. The Fiji Drua and Moana Pasifika will debut in the 12 team-competition which includes five teams each<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":185,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1699,5,495,35766,31983,35767,12,611,124,35768,888],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323750"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/185"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323750"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323751,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323750\/revisions\/323751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}