Moana Pasifika

Exactly what that competition looks like remains to be seen but the granting of an unconditional licence on Monday means the Moana Pasifika club can now focus towards it with certainty.

As Stuff revealed earlier on Monday, Moana Pasifika has placed recruitment on hold for the past few weeks, dramatically hampering its ability to build a competitive squad for the 2022 competition due to the uncertainty of only holding a conditional licence.

New Zealand Rugby awarded the franchise a conditional licence in April to join a revamped competition, alongside five teams from New Zealand, five from Australia and the Fijian Drua.

Confirmation was expected last month but complications over finance, the competition format and getting buy-in from Rugby Australia led to extended delays.

RNZ Pacific has been told an announcement will be made today confirming Moana Pasifika's licence to compete next season.

Granted conditional entrance from next season, alongside the Fijian Drua, the new side was expected to be mostly made up of those playing for a Pacific Island country or on that pathway.

But the squad was also likely to feature a small number of players aligned to other test teams, including potentially the All Blacks.

That could mean New Zealand's five Super teams could be at risk of losing players, with the Blues very much in that category as a franchise based in a region of strong Pacific Island population.

Speaking on Sky’s The Breakdown show on Monday evening, Moana Pasifika general manager Kevin Senio said that 80 per cent of the Moana Pasifika squad would either be already playing for a Pacific Islands nations such as Samoa or Tonga, or on that pathway.

That would invariably strengthen the test squad of the Pacific Island nations, but it also means that eight players out of their squad of 38 will be available for the All Blacks, Australia, or any other test nation.

“What we've done is use the New Zealand model and flicked it on its head,” Senio said.

Earlier this week, New Zealand Rugby announced that Moana Pasifika and Fijian Drua were given conditional licences to join a new Super Rugby competition from next year.

Ex-All Blacks great Sir Michael Jones described the move as “a real groundbreaking moment in the journey for Pacific rugby”, but Turinui was sceptical of the benefits for the likes of Manu Samoa and Tonga at international level.

“To put it simply, Moana Pasifika look to be another NZ franchise who will funnel players through to the All Blacks,” Turinui wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.

New Zealand Rugby made the announcement at a press conference in Auckland yesterday afternoon, which was watched live by a jubilant group of FRU staff at Rugby House in Suva.

FRU Chairman, Conway Beg labelled it one of the most exciting developments in the history of Fiji Rugby.

"To be able to field a team in Super Rugby is a dream come true for our Union, our country, and our players," he said.

NZR chief executive Mark Robinson, NZR board member Sir Michael Jones, Moana Pasifika Steering Committee co-chair Pelenato Sakalia and Former All Black Sir Bryan George 'BeeGee' Williams announced the move at 2pm this afternoon.

Moana Pasifika is a combined Samoa and Tonga side and is likely to be based in South Auckland, while the Fiji side is set to be based in Suva.

NZ Rugby has been working alongside Moana Pasifika and Fiji for months to have them included in 2022, and despite a history of false dawns and disappointment it appears that final sign-off could happen in the next few months.

“I've never been more confident,” Aayden Clarke, the CEO of players’ body Pacific Rugby Players (PRP), told Stuff on Tuesday, “simply because of the appetite of New Zealand Rugby and them being genuine about wanting to make this happen, sharing resources, and their approach.

The composite team lost their first ever match 28-21 to the Māori but led at half-time and kept challenging the defence until the end.

After a week of building combinations while celebrating the cultures and connections of the Pacific, Moana Pasifika coach Fa'alogo Tana Umaga said the performance of the combined pre-match cultural challenge, Tau Kaukawa, was an emotional moment.

He said it marked the beginning of what he hoped the Moana Pasifika would become.

The combined Pacific Island team led 9-7 at half time.

It was an even tussle in the first 40 minutes with both sides making a number of breaks however turnovers let them down.

The Māori were guilty of giving away penalties in their own half which Josh Ioane took advantage of with three first half penalties.

Māori fullback Kaleb Trask scored the only try of the first half when he broke through some weak tackling to crash over under the post, which he then converted.