Pacific islander super team

[thegreat one]

why can't we have a team for the islanders? would help greatly in developing the game. fiji, tonga, samoa even cook islands etc majority players eligible for tonga, fiji and samoa

 

[Larksea]

its a great idea, not a new idea its been talked about a lot. Obvious issues with it to do with money and logistics....

 

[nik]

The pacific island team needs to be able to recruit solid group of PI players. This means paying them a competitive wage so they don't get poached by NH and other Super rugby clubs.

Reality is that Super Rugby cannot afford to have a lackluster PI team just for development purposes. The Sunwolves are an experimental team, however they can fund their team to keep their squad together and more importantly for SANZAAR, there is huge Asian market to exploit pre and post 2019 world cup. Tv coverage in PI is very small and being rugby nations, already saturated.

However, agree that a PI team should be playing in tougher competition. The introduction of a Fijian team in the NRC is a good initiative. It can add a different flavour to the competition whilst also being competitive with less resources.

I think the NPC (ITM cup or whatever is called these days) should follow suit and include a PI team in the competition. This is the best way to increase development in PI and also maintain integrity in Super Rugby competition (mind you the integrity has severely decreased since the introduction of this 18 team format).

 

[mania]

theres no market willing to pay for an islander team.
revenue is based on how much of a TV audience you can bring to the table.
japan and argentina have a huge untouched markets.
Samoa, Tonga and Fiji have small populations and the majority dont have TV's let alone a payPerView TV service like SkyTV.

 

[Regan]

theres no market willing to pay for an islander team.
revenue is based on how much of a TV audience you can bring to the table.
japan and argentina have a huge untouched markets.
Samoa, Tonga and Fiji have small populations and the majority dont have TV's let alone a payPerView TV service like SkyTV.

That being said, you'd probably have quite a few people in NZ watching the games being originally from the islands but agree the market is no where near other markets

 

[mania]

That being said, you'd probably have quite a few people in NZ watching the games being originally from the islands but agree the market is no where near other markets

but the people in NZ dont count towards the PI market.

 

[Brigantine]

They seem to be going more along the path of the Chiefs being a combined Waikato-Fiji team, and the Blues being a combined Auckland-Samoa team

 

[mania]

They seem to be going more along the path of the Chiefs being a combined Waikato-Fiji team, and the Blues being a combined Auckland-Samoa team

this is the first ive heard of this. exciting if true but a lot of logistics to get around.
how does this affect the NZ super rule of only having a set amount of overseas players? i think super teams allow for 1. TimNaniWilliams counts as an o/s player for the chiefs.
this could bring back a lot of PI players who had to leave because they counted as overseas layers once playing for samoa. khanFotualii would come under this situation.

 

[Brigantine]

this is the first ive heard of this.

I'm basically just extrapolating from the few games those teams have hosted in those countries. It's more of a hope than a prediction.

 

[mania]

I'm basically just extrapolating from the few games those teams have hosted in those countries. It's more of a hope than a prediction.

d4m, u sooooo got my hopes up. then a lot of players like alapatiLeiua, paul
Williams, kahnFotuallii could come back to NZ