'We're going to give it everything' - Moana Pasifika's road to Super Rugby

After 26 years of waiting, what's another couple of months?

Moana Pasifika is one signing away from completing its playing roster, but Covid-19 has put a spanner it its pre-season plans ahead of the team's inaugural Super Rugby campaign.

The Auckland-based franchise will join an expanded competition next year alongside the Fijian Drua and five teams each from New Zealand and Australia.

Head coach Aaron Mauger has been working from his Dunedin home since Tāmaki Makaurau went into lockdown in August, focused on player and staff recruitment and planning the team's first pre-season campaign.

"It's nice, every time we have a management meeting each week there seems to be another person popping on, so that group's growing and they're really critical to helping build our programme."

The playing squad was originally due to assemble in late October/early November for pre-season training. That was pushed out to December when the New Zealand provincial competition competition was pushed back until the end of this month.

But with Auckland still locked down, Mauger said they won't be able to come together until the new year.

"Our initial plan was to have a camp pre-Christmas but that's looking unlikely just with the conditions, especially trying to assembly everybody in Auckland," he said.

"We've got a lot of people coming that are transitioning into Auckland with families and families won't come up until January, so we've taken into consideration making sure that guys are spending time with their families during Christmas so first full team assembly will be in January."

The former Highlanders and Leicester Tigers coach admitted that leaves them a very short window to prepare, with Super Rugby Pacific scheduled to kick off on 18 February.

"We're going to have three weeks of training then we're into a couple of pre-season games then into a season," he said bluntly.

"And you match that against 26 years of experience all the other franchises have got plus established roots - it's going to be a good challenge."

But after a 25 year wait for a Pacific Island Super Rugby team, you won't hear any complaints from Moana Pasifika - just a group of people with a purpose and something to prove.

"We just want our fans to know that we're going to give it everything," he said.

"It has been a long time coming so I think we've certainly got to celebrate that and that's what we're doing. It's certainly part of our drive to make sure we are grateful for this opportunity.

"In terms of success it's really hard to say what that's going to look like on the field. We haven't had one training run yet, we haven't assembled a team and we've still got to get through a pre-season so really our focus has been on establishing and building our organisation, building a squad, building a programme and then we'll get a bit of a feel for how quickly we can bring that together.

Building from scratch

Moana Pasifika was only awarded an unconditional licence to compete in Super Rugby in July and has announced 32 player signings so far.

Mauger said the playing roster should be finalised in the coming days.

"We've actually signed 37 of our 38, so they'll just be released over the next week or so - those players and remaining staff - and we're just tidying up one contract which was offered over the weekend," he said.

"Hopefully that will get tied up in the next week as well and then we'll have a full squad."

Among the players who have been announced publicly are 14 current Samoa and Tonga internationals, two former Wallabies and three players eligible to represent either Fiji or the Cook Islands.

Mauger, who had a three year spell in charge of the Highlanders from 2018-2020, said when they began the recruitment process for Moana Pasifika it was important to lock in an experienced core.

"You would have seen that with the likes of Christian Leali'ifano, Sekope Kepu and Jack Lam and those guys that have got plenty of experience that they bring to our group and their leadership will be invaluable," he said.

"Then we've got another group of guys who have had sort of three, four, five years experience at Super Rugby level or above: your Henry Taefu's, players like that that have played quite a bit of rugby.

"Levi Aumua's another guy who's had a taste of Super Rugby and Sam Slade is a guy that's really taken off in the last year and had an awesome campaign with Samoa so those guys have just started to push through."

But Mauger and assistant coach Filo Tiatia are also excited by the next generation of young Pacific Island players, who have been waiting for an opportunity to impress at Super Rugby level.

"We're really careful with our due diligence around a lot of our young guys around type of character and coachability and they're really excited about where they can all take their games," he said.

"You look at guys like Sione Tu'ipulotu, Solomone Funaki, Lincoln McClutchie - all these guys that are really excelling at NPC rugby - are really excited to see what they can do at the next level.

"We're really happy with our squad, it's got a good balance to it and looking forward to getting our hands on them."

Time for Change

The former All Black midfielder is also backing proposed changes to World Rugby's eligibility laws, which stand to benefit Pacific Island nations.

Currently, players can only represent one country at test level, unless they exploit a complicated sevens loophole.

But the World Rugby Council will vote later this month on whether to allow players to switch their allegiance after a three year stand-down, provided the player, their parents or grandparents were born in the second country.

Mauger is all for the changes, which would allow more Pacific Island players to represent their heritage.

"You don't know what you don't know eh? Often if you're a young Pasifika player previously coming through the New Zealand system your sights are pretty much set on Super Rugby for a New Zealand franchise or a black jersey," he said.

"You just follow that path and do the best you can and it's sometimes not until later on in life where you start to reconnect a bit more with your roots and your identity and you wish that you could contribute more."

Charles Piutau, Lima Sopoaga and Seta Tamanivalu are among a host of former All Blacks who have indicated they would love the chance to represent their Pacific Island heritage if given the chance, with Ngani Laumape also calling on World Rugby to "open up the eligbility rules" this week.

"You look at guys like Lima Sopoaga, Malakai Fekitoa, Charles Piutau - those guys are all in their late 20s now to early 30s and they're in that space and they just want to come back and help," he said.

"They want to grow the game through the Pacific and also help grow the infrastructure for those unions. It's only going to be a good thing right?

"You get more competitive teams playing in World Cups - if the Samoan and Tongan teams are starting to push those top eight teams consistently then it's got to be good for the game. I'm all for it, it's the right thing to do and hopefully common sense prevails."

A number of the Moana Pasifika players are eligible to represent both New Zealand and a Pacific Island nation - some even more than one.

While signing for the Super Rugby newcomers does not capture their eligibility, Mauger said the expectation was that those players will make themselves available for the likes of Manu Samoa, the 'Ikale Tahi and Cook Islands.

"Certainly a big part of our mandate is to assist Samoa and Tonga in that space and the Cook Islands are starting to push through as well, and with my connections there I'm really keen to promote that pathway for our Cook Island players," he said.

"We've identified players in New Zealand as well of Samoan, Tongan heritage that haven't been a part of those national set-ups yet and have really promoted those to both Toutai (Kefu) at Tonga and Seilala (Mapusua) at Samoa around where we think these players might get to in assisting them with their World Cup preparations.

"They've also had guys in their squads that we didn't really know much about that they've put on the table and we've done our research on them and ended up contracting a few of those players as well."

Mauger, who has Samoan, Tahitian and Cook Island heritage, said the chance for players and staff to connect with their Pacific Island heritage is a huge part of what the team is about.

"Our boys all understand what this programme is about and they're all excited about being connected to it. For a lot of them it's a great opportunity to explore their own roots a little bit more," he said.

"That's a really common theme with a lot of our boys, really connecting deeper into their identity and where they're from and where their families are from and being really proud to represent that.

"That's what really the main purpose of Moana Pasifika is to get out and represent our people."