Ardie Savea's pitch to Moana Pasifika fans after joining the Blues

Ardie Savea hopes to recreate some of the Moana Pasifika magic with the Blues in 2027, taking the lessons he learned in his lone season with the now-defunct club into his new chapter with the other Auckland-based outfit.

Savea’s Player of the Year-winning campaign as Moana Pasifika captain may have ended with no more than individual accolades, but the proud Samoan says he felt a shift that went beyond the four lines on the field in that 2025 season.

Not wanting to let that momentum go to waste, the All Blacks captain had a message for potentially disenfranchised Moana Pasifika fans as he announced his move to the Blues.

“Obviously, first and foremost, I want to honour Moana and their team, and them not being in the competition,” Savea began, before answering what the biggest takeaways from his Moana Pasifika experience were.

“I think it’s playing for a bigger purpose than the team, and it’s playing bigger than getting a result on the Saturday. The purpose is to bring people together, and even though Moana failed in terms of the rugby sense and not making finals, I think we brought Super Rugby back, and that was through the joy and the laughter and the fun, but also the hard work that we brought.

“So we play for the people, and also the Blues play for the people. And it just happened that Moana was in the ’09, and we’re not there. So I just hope that the Moana fans can come on board with the Blues fans, and we create something special this year.”

For Savea, it’s about more than just the product on the field; he says he wants the Blues’ off-field success to be as central as the on-field success he hopes to achieve. What does off-field success look like? “Uniting our city through how we play, through how we do things; bringing laughter, joy, and excitement.

“I think it’s so important, and the Blues are that, and that’s a great opportunity to be that. We represent so many ethnicities and cultures in Auckland. So what a great chance not only to use rugby as a vehicle, but also through how we act ourselves and how we make people feel, give people hope through the way we play rugby, but also the way we are as people. So I’m really looking forward to it.”

Joining the third club in his Super Rugby career, Savea says change doesn’t get any easier, but it always comes with opportunities. At the Blues, he says the opportunity he sees aligns with the vision of CEO Karl Budge and extends beyond the field.

“I think us as humans, we fear change, but for us to, I guess, be pioneers and things, we’ve got to do that, and we’ve got to be brave enough to jump off the edge and do things differently. It might not pay off, but at least you can look back and say we tried, and I think our game needs it. So game day, make the fans the priority, make it fun. You know, it’s not just a rugby game; you’re building things around it to create a massive entertainment thing, so the kids beg their parents to go to the game. They might not watch the game, but it creates an atmosphere that the players feel.”