A Fijian Super Round is on the radar as the Pacific favorites push for facility upgrades that would allow the rugby-mad nation to host the relaunched concept.
Ten of Super Rugby Pacific’s 11 outfits will descend on Christchurch’s new One NZ Stadium, with hosts the Crusaders to face the NSW Waratahs in the first of five games across three days on Friday.
More than 14,000 people will travel to the event that has been reborn to coincide with the stadium’s symbolic opening after the city’s deadly 2011 earthquake.
Super Round had a lukewarm, three-year lifespan in Melbourne before the Rebels’ demise killed off the concept last year.
It comes a week after Moana Pasifika‘s owners announced they would not fund the franchise beyond this year, creating a familiar uncertainty around the competition’s future.
But, with the tournament otherwise delicately poised through 10 rounds, there is buzz and an expectation the Super Round product will be easier to sell once an estimated 70,000 fans have rolled through the gates on Sunday.
“That should accelerate the discussions that are already going on, in Australia and New Zealand, for 2027 and 2028.”
“We think we’ve got something really positive to sell and a lot of those people will be at Super Round on the weekend.
“And also we’d hope Christchurch would love to host it again.”
Fiji, where the Drua are based and flourish in front of packed home crowds, is an obvious Super Round destination Mesley “has a lot of passion for”.
“It’d be such a great, unique experience and I’d love to do it, but it’s got a bit of work,” he said.
“It’s a longer term conversation because we need hard infrastructure improvements there to host ‘Bula Round’, as they’ve affectionately termed it.”
The Drua have played out of Lautoka and Suva, which holds 15,000 fans, since entering the competition in 2022.
But to host a Super Round the venues will need, at the minimum, lighting upgrades and two extra player changerooms to accommodate the double-headers on Saturday and Sunday.
“It’d be incredible … a great advertisement for the game in the Pasifika region because a lot of the talent is going to rugby league,” former Wallabies halfback Will Genia, born in Papua New Guinea, told AAP.
“League is just everywhere on TV, the (NRL’s) profile and it’s individuals are bigger.
“An event like that in the Pasifika, it just captures the audience again. It keeps them engaged.”
Facility upgrades in Fiji would also benefit the Test side, who have taken their three home games in the new Nations Championship to Europe this year as a revenue-raising initiative.
“It all links in,” Mesley said.
“We’ve met with (Fijian) government officials over past 18 months and the importance of sports tourism, they’re very conscious of it.
“In terms of extending their holiday season, they see the value and rugby is such a big part of their makeup.
“But funding for infrastructure projects is not a simple thing.”
Mesley said they were “planning for all eventualities for 2027” while a window still existed for an investor to save the embattled Pasifika.
“Things need to move quickly,” he said of the prospect of the club being taken over.
“Moana have been looking for new investors for some time, but this gives it a whole lot of publicity.
“The world now knows and there’s clearly a lot of passion out there. There’s something to grab hold of, if you have the right level of funding.”
World Rugby chair Brett Robinson will meet with Super Rugby Pacific officials while in Christchurch.
“We want to get in, have a look and see what the options are and how they benefit Super Rugby Pacific,” Mesley said of conversations around the tournament’s future structure.
“We’re tied into a pretty small window at the moment so any opportunity to get additional weeks, us and our clubs would love that.”
