The Rock a ‘win-win’ for PI rugby

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is being targeted by a social media campaign to champion a Pacific Island Super Rugby franchise.

The person driving the idea is Kiwi Simon Anderson, who believes Johnson has the mana and the marketable reach to not only unify the Pacific Island nations around a rugby team, but ensure its sustainability and the overall expansion of Super Rugby.

The aim of the campaign is to get thousands of rugby fans to tag the former pro wrestler turned Hollywood superstar across social media channels to get him to look at a proposal video set up to argue the case for a Pacific Island franchise.

‘‘Super Rugby needs to expand and do so without diluting the quality of the competition,’’ Anderson said.

‘‘Pacific Island rugby needs to be given a platform from which it can compete.

‘‘In Dwayne Johnson there would be the perfect win-win. Were he to be granted a licence for a Pacific franchise, he would contribute to a very bright future for Sanzaar.

‘‘At present, there appears to be no real strategy for how Super Rugby will expand and compete with the commercially superior European competitions.’’

The campaign to get ‘The Rock’ went live on Tuesday and as of yesterday afternoon the video had more than 32,000 views on Facebook.