Super Rugby has set its sights on the vast, blue horizon of the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to reinvent and re-energise the elite southern hemisphere competition and for the first time in its 26-year history the competition will feature two Pacific Island teams – the Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika – along with sides from Australia and New Zealand.
Many would argue that these inclusions are long overdue given the Pacific Islands’ enormous contribution to the game globally, particularly Super Rugby. Without professional domestic competitions, the major rugby-playing nations of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga became nurseries for rich clubs in Australasia, Europe and Japan.
