Moana Pasifika finally taking to the field

The long awaited Moana Pasifika Super Rugby team will finally take to the field tomorrow, the 4th of February as they face the might of 2 time Super Rugby champions Gallagher Chiefs in the pre season match in Auckland.

This marks the first outing for a team that has been a long time in the making, with the likes of Sir Bryan William and Sir Michael Jones spear heading the fight to have a pacific islander based team in the Super Rugby Competition for almost a quarter of a century.

It was only on the 12th of July 2021 that the New Zealand Rugby Union awarded the Moana Pasifika Franchise a conditional license to join the revamped competition; a massive leap in acknowledging the contribution of Pacific Islanders to the sport of rugby.

Sir Bryan William stated in an interview with Radio New Zealand on October 2021 "A generation of young men now have professional teams imbued by their culture to aspire to, and multiple generations of people have teams they can rally behind". This speaks heavy to how much this first outing will mean to the man himself, as well as the Pacific Island community all together.

The debut Moana Pasifika team will be well equipped with strong leadership with Sekope Kepu; former Waratahs, London Irish and Australian rep taking the helm as skipper for not only this match but also their 2022 Super Rugby Pacific campaign. Seeing as it is a home game in Auckland, there is sure to be a huge Pacific Island presence for the pre-season match.

Moana Pasifika will take on the Chiefs tomorrow Friday 4th of February, and then they will take on the Blues on the 18th of February for the official start to the 2022 Super Rugby.