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'You can't play for the All Blacks or Australia': New Super Rugby side Moana Pasifika reveal eligibility rules
Moana Pasifika, one of two Pacific-based franchises granted conditional licences to join a new professional competition involving the New Zealand and Australian Super Rugby sides next year, has revealed key details over the eligibility of its playing roster.
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Speaking on The Breakdown on Monday, Moana Pasifika general manager Kevin Senio said 80 percent of the players on the franchise’s roster will need to eligible or available to play for Samoa, Tonga, Fiji or any other Pacific nation.
That would leave eight players within the franchise’s 38-man squad available to play for the All Blacks, Wallabies or any other test nation.
“What we’ve done is we’ve used the New Zealand model and flipped it on its head,” Senio, who played one test for the All Blacks in 2005, said.
“So, 80 percent of the team have to be eligible and/or have played for Samoa or Tonga and/or Fiji – any of the Pasifika teams.
“For those who are going to be aligning themselves into Moana Pasifika, you can’t play for the All Blacks or Australia.”
Additionally, it was clarified on The Breakdown that those playing for Moana Pasifika would be contracted to the franchise itself, rather than New Zealand Rugby [NZR], who have two board members on Moana Pasifika’s committee.
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That drew the ire of Pacific Rugby Welfare chief executive and former Manu Samoa lock Daniel Leo earlier this week as he asked World Rugby on Twitter to ensure Moana Pasifika “doesn’t become NZs 6th Super Team”.
Already 2 NZRugby Board members on Moana’s committee & hearing a NZRPA employee being lined up as Moana Director of Rugby.
Lots of room for conflict of interest.
Very little consultation with SAMOA & TONGA
Need to make sure Moana doesn’t become NZs 6th Super Team @WorldRugby https://t.co/fWTPYCschM
— Daniel Leo (@danleo82) April 16, 2021
Senio’s comments may go some way to alleviating concerns, though, given the majority of those playing for the newly-announced side will align themselves with the Pacific Islands on the international stage.
However, Senio acknowledged Moana Pasifika are under “time pressure” to contract individuals to bring together a full playing squad and a coaching staff.
He said that among the conditions of the franchise’s conditional licence was that they will be competitive upon their induction in the new competition.
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That has forced Moana Pasifika’s recruitment team to cast their net abroad in the hope of luring overseas-based stars back to the Pacific Islands, while they will also look to promote players from the region’s top local leagues and U20 programmes.
A Sydney Roosters star, who played for the Australian Schools union team six years ago, is hoping the All Blacks star becomes a success in the NRL. #NRL #AllBlacks https://t.co/AskP7ZiFu8
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 20, 2021
“The licence term is that this team needs to be competitive,” Senio said.
“So, it’s a balance of having established players and all those who are overseas that can help this team in terms of performance, and the other part of it is the backfill and connect into the high performance environments up in Tonga and Samoa and look at their existing programmes.
“They’ve got the national U20s programme amongst Samoa, Tonga and Fiji, and also a national A-level, so in terms of identifying talent, that’s who we’re going to connect into.”
Meanwhile, Senio confirmed that Moana Pasifika will use the same pay scale used by New Zealand’s Super Rugby sides, and that the franchise will be primarily based out of South Auckland at Mt Smart Stadium due to a bigger fan market and the potential travel implications of COVID-19.
He also suggested home matches could be played across the Pacific, including Apia and Hawaii, but ruled Nuku’alofa out of staging matches for the time being given the Tongan capital’s lack of infrastructure.
Senio added he hopes that Moana Pasifika can permanently establish their home base between Samoa and Tonga once the the franchise is fully up and running.
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Comments on RugbyPass
late hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
4 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
24 Go to comments