Why SANZAAR thumbed their noses at Pacific team

REACTION: An ambitious bid to set up a Pacific Islands Super Rugby team has failed, it the Fiji Rugby Union revealed on Thursday.

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

However, in a world where ‘cash is king’, SANZAAR power brokers decided it was not commercially viable.

FRU Chief Executive Officer John O’Connor confirmed that a joint bid from Fiji, Samoa and Tonga was submitted in June to 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 to 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 US$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 [Super Rugby] franchise team, would probably be community rugby and club rugby.”

Rugby fans have floated the idea of a combined Pacific team for years but it has always floundered on economic grounds.

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

In the meantime, their best players have left for New Zealand, Australia and Europe.

The Super Rugby competition currently has 15 teams playing in five nations that straddle numerous time-zones, making salaries and accommodation expensive.

SANZAAR has struggled to prevent the competition becoming bloated while also expanding into new markets, culling the number of teams from 18 to 15 for the 2018 season.

Further changes are afoot from 2021, with reports in Australia suggesting Japan’s under-performing Sunwolves could be the latest team to face the axe.

SANZAAR has refused to comment, saying no final decisions have been made.

Agence France-Presse