It’s good to be back, with the Super Rugby season kick-off about two weeks away the dream of an undefeated run of cricket scores (especially against the Tahs) yet to crash into reality. Today’s rugby news sees Super Rugby use the PotY, the Force victims of a conspiracy (as usual), a stampede of three ABs players to Moana Pacifika, and the Chiefs to play at the Hong Kong Sevens.
Super Rugby Pacific introduces Player of the Year award
Nathan “got the thousand-yard stare from Eddie’s press conferences” Williamson reports that Super Rugby Pacific will recognise the competition’s most outstanding player this season with the presentation of the inaugural Player of the Year Award.
The award will be voted on by the respective coaches and captains of the 11 SR clubs. After each game, the captain and coach from both sides will be asked for their top three players from the opposing side on a 3-2-1 scale. Presumably Reds co-captains Liam Wright and Tate McDermott will get a vote each, skewing the overall points towards their opposition (dammit). These votes will be public every Tuesday on the competition’s social media, with the winner crowned at the end of the regular season.
In previous years, awards for SRP have been handed out by Rugby Australia and New Zealand Rugby to the best Australian and New Zealand players respectively. Queensland Reds flanker Fraser McReight claimed back-to-back awards as the Australian Super Rugby Pacific Player of the Year at the Rugby Australia Awards in October. Meanwhile, Blues flanker Hoskins Sotutu won the Super Rugby Pacific Player of the Year during the 2024 NZ Rugby Awards in December.
Nic White offers opinion on Force draw
Rugby365 reports that the normally reclusive Nic White thinks the Western Force have been stitched-up by the Super Rugby scheduling. The Force have a hectic travel fixture list which will see them crisscross Australia for most of the season, as well as facing their usual tough trips to NZ and Fiji.
There are two sensible sections in the Force’s draw. The first is when they play the Waratahs in Sydney one week (which is effectively a bye for the visitors anyway) and then the Crusaders in Christchurch the next, giving them the option to stay over in the east. Then later in the season, the Force will be able to set up camp in NZ to face the Chiefs and Blues in consecutive weeks.
Aside from that, the Force will be back and forth all season – a situation that hasn’t escaped the attention of White or his teammates. “We’ve been kind of stitched up with the draw,” White told AAP. “You feel like given we’re the furthest away that travel should come into consideration there. We’ve got to zig-zag across the country and across to New Zealand quite a bit this year. So we’re on the road a fair bit. I feel like there could have been a more efficient way of doing that. I thought it worked well last year, we had two or three home games in a row and then two or three away games. But this year it’s kind of one at home, one away, one at home, one away, which kind of upsets the training week.”
“We fly economy. There are a couple of exit rows that will go to the locks. Outside of that, we’re all jammed in together. And as you know with time zones (it’s difficult).”
The whining is expected to continue long after the jet engines stop.
All Blacks players interested in Moana Pacifika move
PlanetRugby reports that more All Blacks could follow the example set by Ardie Savea by leaving their current SRP teams to join Tana Umaga-coached Moana Pasifika when renegotiating their contracts with New Zealand Rugby (NZR). Savea signed a three-year deal with Moana Pasifika until 2027. He is a high-profile player who has already made 94 Test appearances for the All Blacks and was announced as Moana’s new captain on Monday.
Savea is set to become the first current All Black to represent Moana after he left his SRP franchise, the Hurricanes, explaining that he wants to give back to his parents’ Samoan heritage, adding that being in a team that (G&GR writer) KARL supports “never sat well” with the loose forward.
Although Moana are based in Auckland, the club’s primary objective is to produce players who represent Tonga and Manu Samoa instead of the All Blacks. However, NZR’s current rules give Moana permission to have up to three of the governing body’s contracted players playing for them. According to the article, at least two current All Blacks have told their representatives that they would also like to join Moana when the time comes to sign a new NZR contract. The reasons behind those desired moves range from players also wanting to represent their heritage, the attraction of living in Auckland (not a misprint) or playing alongside Savea at club level as well as in the international arena.
Chiefs to play at Hong Kong Sevens
The Kaiser Chiefs that is. See the RugbyPass article if you have any time for non-metal music.
