Moana Pasifika have yet to win a game this season. Photo / Photosport
Moana Pasifika have yet to win a game this season. Photo / Photosport
Opinion
Moana Pasifika sit at the bottom of the Super Rugby Pacific table, and most likely that’s where they will be at the end of the season.
They might win a game - and they will see this weekend’s clash against the 11th-placed Rebels as their best chance to doso.
A solitary victory is not the sort of return that will win Moana the support and recognition the team was created to generate.
One win, if it does eventuate, won’t give Moana the strength of argument they need to justify their inclusion in the competition, but it will, however, provide those who were sceptical about the licence being granted the ammunition to say they were right about it being a bad idea.
But what Moana’s difficult season should induce is not disdain for their existence, but a renewed and deeper commitment of support and a willingness to consider introducing tougher contracting regulations to drive a greater number of players out of their current clubs in the direction of South Auckland.
Moana’s greatest problem has been building a playing squad of the requisite quality, and the reason they have found recruiting players hard is largely because the other five New Zealand sides have made it that way.
The Blues and Chiefs have been open in their belief that they felt threatened by the launch of Moana as it would lead to unsustainable competition for players, sponsors and fans.
The other three clubs haven’t felt the same pressure around sponsors and fans, but they have with labour, and it would be a fascinating exercise to discover how many young, fringe Pasifika players at the five New Zealand clubs were signed or re-signed once the decision was made to grant Moana a licence.
Whether there was a hurried scramble to protect talent, the problem is that Moana was set up to be the home of the best players eligible to play for the national teams of Samoa and Tonga, and yet two years into the club’s history, and the best Pasifika athletes remain contracted to New Zealand’s five foundation teams.
The frustration for Moana is acute: not only have they not been able to contract players who fit their selection criteria, but most weeks, they are being damaged by the very players they can’t get their hands on.
Moana Pasifika players huddle. Photo / Photosport
New Zealand Rugby can shrug and say this is how free markets work - that players make their career choices based on how they perceive the opportunities being offered, but history has shown that the free market has been a means through which the established rugby world has been able to exploit the Pacific Island nations.
Having been bold enough to grant Moana a licence, NZR now needs to accept that if nothing is done to actively divert the best Pasifika players into Moana, the club will add little to Super Rugby Pacific and struggle to help the development of Samoa and Tonga.
It’s a fine line at the moment as to whether Moana should be euphoric they’ve been set up, or indignant they’ve been set up to fail.
The best Pasifika players need to be playing for Moana, and the more quickly they are doing so, the better it will be for Super Rugby Pacific, which is why a contract amnesty should be considered later this year.
What if players contracted to the Blues, Chiefs, Hurricanes, Crusaders and Highlanders who are eligible for Samoa and Tonga - immediately and not after a three-year stand-down - were able to transfer to Moana under the same financial terms of their existing contract?
NZR could offer that up to dramatically strengthen Moana’s squad for next year and control it to some extent by restricting the shift to just three players from each club.
New Zealand’s five clubs would inevitably argue they can’t afford to lose even three players, but if Super Rugby Pacific is to reverse its declining key metrics, it must be thinking longer-term.
The endless mismatches are killing interest, and while the Australians are an almost hopeless cause, Moana aren’t.
This is a team that could be instantly competitive if they could grab James Lay, Soane Vikena and Taniela Tele’a from the Blues; Ngane Punivai and Josh Ioane from the Chiefs; Tevita Malifeo, Du’Plessis Kirifi and Brayden Iose from the Hurricanes; Chay Fihaki, Sione Havili-Talitui and Melani Nanai from the Crusaders and Marino Mikaele Tu’u, Connor Garden-Bachop and Andrew Makalio from the Highlanders.
Given how few people turned up at Eden Park to see the Blues wallop the Waratahs last week, there’s no question that self-protective attitudes are only going to accelerate the demise of Super Rugby Pacific.
If the five New Zealand clubs can be persuaded to give a little to Moana now, they will get a lot back in the long-run.
