I don't think tenuous links matter, they really need to lean pretty heavily on colour matches above and beyond anything else. At least they do if we give a shit about the competition as a product. Fine to sell sponsorship and even jersey partnerships like this, but if you can't make it work without completely throwing the branding of the teams themselves out then just don't do it.Yep, at least Clan have some Otago blue & Southland kinda-maroon in there but 'canes look like the Harlem Globetrotters circa 1976.
Edit: it's pretty tenuous but 'canes could've gone with Thor based on the Scandinavian origins of plenty of people from Southern Hawkes Bay towns such as Norsewood & Dannevirke (Joh Bjelke-Petersens's home town, I think).