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5 ex-All Blacks behind the new Hawaiian MLR franchise

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

After Major League Rugby officials revealed the success of an expansion bid from Kanaloa Hawaii to join the league for the 2021 season, it has since emerged that the latest newcomers to the American ruby scene are back-up by a plethora of former All Blacks. 

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According to a story on djcoilrugby.com, ex-New Zealand team players Anthony Tuitavake, Ben Atiga, Jerome Kaino, Joe Rokocoko and John Afoa have all clubbed together with friends and business associates Matt Atiga, Tracy Atiga and Cam Kilgour to found the first Maori and Polynesian owned and operated professional rugby club in the world. 

Known as the Mercury Group, the new club’s ownership team – who are based in Europe, New Zealand and the UK – are said to have given back to the wider Maori and Polynesian community through free community rugby clinics and voluntary service to the development of club, provincial and international rugby.

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This includes coaching clinics delivered in Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, Aotearoa (New Zealand) and Tahiti. Now they are taking that commitment to another level by the setting-up of a professional rugby franchise in Hawaii, an area of America not traditionally associated with professional sports. 

A letter written by club CEO Tracy Atiga stated: “By taking on the responsibility of a club, the owners can provide direct solutions to challenges that Maori and Pasifika players face in the rugby industry. 

“The owners have pledged to lead through a Polynesian village ethos based on servant leadership principles that are guided by the organisation’s values of faith and family. The ownership team is excited to have secured a spot in the MLR and have already set their sights on making a bid to participate in the Oceania based Super Rugby competition and other global competitions moving forward.

“Kanaloa Hawaii Rugby wishes to acknowledge and express sincere gratitude to the MLR, Hawaii Rugby Union, and various local organisations that have offered support and partnership opportunities to get the venture off the ground.”

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Having had their initial application accepted by MLR HQ in Dallas, Kanaloa Hawaii now have 90 days to finalise terms and meet the necessary benchmarks before their membership is formally ratified ahead of the 2021 season. 

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Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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