Ex-All Black’s desperate plea to rugby’s investors as he lists the dire consequences of Moana Pasifika’s demise
Moana Pasifika facing the Waratahs in 2026 Super Rugby Pacific and Lima Sopoaga at the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Former All Blacks fly-half and current Samoa international Lima Sopoaga is still hoping there will be a saviour for Moana Pasifika in the wake of their hugely disappointing recent announcement.
It was revealed earlier in the week that they are set to exit Super Rugby Pacific at the end of the current season due to the financial burden of running the franchise.
They are simply losing too much money, resulting in the hierarchy making the decision to disband the side following the conclusion of the 2026 campaign.
There doesn’t appear to be any sort of rescue plan in the pipeline but Sopoaga is not giving up hope that someone will come in.
Hoping and praying
“It’s quite sad to see where it’s got to and with the news being that they will cease to exist in 2027, but I’m sure there are people behind the scenes still hopeful that they can find somebody to take over the license,” he told Sport Nation.
“We can just only hope and I guess pray that something might come of this.”
The aim of Moana – and Fijian Drua – was to bolster the Pacific Island nations and provide a stepping stone to Test rugby.
Super Rugby also gives them a way of developing players and offers a pathway for the immense talent they produce.
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Sopoaga is therefore devastated that the opportunities for Samoans and Tongans have been reduced following the confirmation that Moana would be dissolved.
“We need it, the Pacific Islands need it. We need it to showcase talent, we need it so that there’s a pathway or what you’re going to see is players just head straight to Europe,” he said.
“They will get plucked out of schools or age-group programmes and they will either go to Europe of they will go to rugby league and we will lose them forever. That’s the cold, harsh reality of high performance sport but this team needs to still exist.”
World Rugby funding cut
Moana were owned by the Pasifika Medical Association (PMA) and also had financial support from NZ Rugby and World Rugby but, after funding was reduced, it became unsustainable.
However, Sopoaga still believes that there is an excellent opportunity there for someone if they are looking to invest.
“I’m hopeful that between now and the end of the year, there might be a consortium of investors that might look at this and think, ‘this is pretty cool’, or some like Red Bull, who’s taken over Newcastle up in the PREM,” he added.
“I’m not sure but I know there’s probably people out there who might see this as a great opportunity, but for now we’ve been told that it’s toast and that’s super, super sad.”