Pacific team unsustainable

– An ambitious bid to set up a Pacific Islands Super Rugby team has failed after competition organisers decided it was not commercially viable, the Fiji Rugby Union said yesterday.

Including a Pacific team in the southern hemisphere competition was seen as a game-changer for rugby in the islands, a hotbed of talent where top players have long headed overseas to chase more lucrative opportunities.

Fiji rugby chief John O’Connor confirmed that a joint bid from Fiji, Samoa and Tonga was submitted in June to Super Rugby governing body Sanzaar, which is currently examining how the competition will be structured from 2021 to 2030.

He said Sanzaar had praised aspects of the bid but ultimately rejected it on commercial grounds, saying it could not deliver “commercial uplift in both broadcasting and guaranteed underwrite”.

“This would render the viability of a Pacific Super team under the proposed Sanzaar commercial model unsustainable,” O’Connor said in a statement.

The Fiji Rugby Union did not detail the costings outlined in the bid but the Pacific Rugby Players’ Association said it would have required a minimum annual investment of $12 million.

“The decision was made within the Pacific that financially it didn’t stack up,” association chief Aayden Clarke told Radio New Zealand.

“The losers in that, if they were to put all their eggs in that basket of having a franchise team, would probably be community rugby and club rugby.”

The remote islands lack the economic base to attract major sponsors, facilities are poor and the financially strapped unions of all three nations have faced major governance issues. –

Wellington

The decision was made within the Pacific that financially it didn’t stack up.

Aayden Clarke Players’ Association chief