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Auckland based 'Moana Pasifika' Super Rugby team bid unveiled - but are Fiji on board?
By Ian Cameron
A new south Auckland based group - Moana Pasifika - have launched a bid to become Super Rugby's much-vaunted new Pacific rugby team, but they may have started on the wrong foot with at least one of the three Pacific unions.
According to Stuff.nz the team is backed by All Black legend Bryan Williams, as well as the former Attorney Generals of both Samoa and Tonga. The group that wants to represent all of the Pacific nations, and are proposing to work closely with Counties-Manukau rugby union, who are based in south Auckland.
The inclusion of a Pasifika team in the Super Rugby has been talked about for years and the new group intend to enter the Moana Pasifika team in next year's Super Rugby Aotearoa competition. The genesis of the Moana Pasifika side came about during the NZR process of trying to arrange a match between the All Blacks and a Pacific XV.
Now the side look set to team up with Counties-Manukau.
“We have had a lot of dialogue with the Moana Pasifika group,” Counties Chief Executive Aaron Lawton told Stuff. “They are very impressive, and while nothing is over the line yet by any stretch, we have certainly indicated an interest to work with them on something we feel could have a massive long-term impact on rugby in our region.”
However, they might yet be missing a significant piece of the jigsaw - Fiji.
Former Flying Fijians Captain, Simon Raiwalui, the General Manager High-Performance for the Fiji Rugby Union, has thrown cold water on a claim that the Fijian Rugby Union have given any sort of informal support for the bid - as suggested in the article.
"It’s understood there’s informal support for the bid from the Samoan, Tongan and Fijian rugby unions" - you were told by who of this support may I ask?" he tweeted.
The 39-test Flying Fijian would clearly know if the bid had support, informal or otherwise, so his tweet casts a shadow on the new Auckland based bid. Fiji- 11th in the world rankings - are currently the most accomplished of the three largest Pacific Island nations, and their involvement in a Pasifika Super Rugby side is clearly vital.
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Go to commentsI'm aware. England were only able to play that way because they were dominating the gainline and getting very quick ball. We won't be allowed those liberties against better sides and of course will have to kick much more but England's approach has been far too skewed towards low risk rugby. Their kick to pass ratio per possession was double that of France and their average ruck speed almost twice as slow. However, England brutally put Wales at the Principality to the sword today and it was the first performance under Borthwick where I felt the players were truly trusted to play what was in front of them. Even against Italy with a big lead we started box kicking at 50 mins and killed all momentum. The times England have looked best - 2nd half against France, Ireland last year and today are all games where they've played with positivity and backed themselves to counter attack and play multiphase rugby. The Scotland game we barely went more than 2 phases without kicking, that is not a recipe for success. Kick a lot and get in the right areas of the field, Roebuck was excellent today on kick chase but we need to back our players to move the ball and play multiphase rugby when we get in the right areas of the field and today we took a big confident step forward.
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