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It looks like Super Rugby is looking to expand with a new Pacific Islands team for 2020. To be called the Pacific Force. Now that's cynical, it looks like they're trying to step up the nastiness. Just hope WSR can confirm one or two Pacific Islands teams first.
https://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/s...0671a4c464cf36
Western Australia would be a better name geographically for the WSR/IPRC anyway. All teams should have geographical names for that competition.
Still, wouldn't put it past SANZAAR to be bloody-minded about something.
Japan and the Pacific Islands for Aussie Super 9's!
Let's have one of these in WA! Click this link: Saitama Super Arena - New Perth Stadium?
Overheard at SAANNNZZZZAAAAARRRRRR HQ:
"Hmmmm well Fiji, Samoa and Tonga ARE all West of the international date line... that is, in the Western Pacific Ocean... so the Western Pacific Force? Too wordy? Ah what the hell, lets just call them the Western Force!"
They can always play this Western Force team in Western Sydney.
You know what? Fuck SANZAAR, I actually have no interest at all in what they do. Twiggy can get a group of billionaires together and set up a streamlined comp with the Asia-Pacific and fuck the rest of Australia and New Zealand right off. It's pointless involving them.
They had their chance in the 90s to set something up with the islands prior to the advent of rampaging cashed-up Euro clubs; but what did they do? Kick 'em out of Super Rugby in 1995. Remember how competitive Samoa were back then? Now they want to do something, after the damage has been done; after the drain to Euro clubs and the growth of rugby league in those nations. What idiots. They didn't lift a finger when Pacific players started playing test rugby for European nations. And now they want to help? Possibly using the Force name? It's bad comedy.
Last edited by chibi; 15-05-18 at 17:50.
Japan and the Pacific Islands for Aussie Super 9's!
Let's have one of these in WA! Click this link: Saitama Super Arena - New Perth Stadium?
Good luck to them. Our force just beat their force anyway.
It would only ever be used as a talent identification engine to funnel the most promising islanders into the all Blacks anyway
C'mon the![]()
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Pretty much the way I feel. It's like watching a slow moving train wreck, I have this morbid curiosity to watch the RA burn and just cannot turn away. But do I care? Nope, not one bit. I still secretly wish we could just represent ourselves and move on as Western Australia and play Tests and maybe attempt to qualify for the Rugby World Cup. I travelled over to NZL in 2011 to watch a Wallaby Rugby World Cup match but I can safely say that it would never ever happen again. Ill probably never go to a Wallaby game again, I'm done.
Japan and the Pacific Islands for Aussie Super 9's!
Let's have one of these in WA! Click this link: Saitama Super Arena - New Perth Stadium?
After watching that performance from the Force this weekend why would anyone? They produced a spectacular and highly entertaining peformance and brand of rugby. They did WA extremely proud. We have a product that is better and far more entertaining than anything the Wallabies have produced in the last 5 years
5 years?
I can't remember the wallatahs throwing the ball around that well this century
C'mon the![]()
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Super Rugby team in Hawaii now! Lol 😂
Group that failed to buy Warriors keen on Super Rugby team in Hawaii
16 May, 2018 8:02am 2 minutes to read
Play VideoWe wrap up a huge weekend of sport with Super Rugby controversy and Kiwis in action in the EPL, PGA and F1.
NZ Herald
The consortium that tried and failed to buy the Warriors, is interested in backing a Pacific Island Super Rugby team - based in Hawaii.
Head of the consortium Richard Fale has told the Radio Sport Breakfast that the consortium was initially established to start a Super Rugby team to Hawaii the last time the competition expanded.
"The prospect of an expansion Super Rugby franchise of Pacific Islands origin based in Hawaii was the original reason why our group came together in the first place," Fale said.
"We came together after all the excitement of the talk of the expansion of Japan and Argentina and then the talk of the next step was the United States."
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Newshub reported on Monday that New Zealand Rugby and the government have funded a feasibility study on the establishment of a Pacific Islands Super Rugby team.
Gregor Paul: Pacific Super Rugby dream still way off
The team would be an independent franchise based in Suva, but also playing in Samoa, Tonga, Auckland and Sydney. The inference is that it would enter the competition in 2021, when a new broadcasting contract kicks in.
Fale said he doesn't believe a Fiji based side would be financial viable, but a Hawaiian bid would attract greater broadcast revenue.
"What we're looking at is to have the team based in Hawaii. It would still have the Polynesian-Pacific Island flavor to it but what has to be behind it is the economic feasibility of the team. By opening the door with Hawaii, it also grants you access to the US market.
"It would be particularly challenging to have it either based in Tonga or Fiji, those are just financial realities that have to be addressed. It would be the same idea but based in Hawaii," Fale said.
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"It's kind of inevitable that the largest sporting market on planet Earth needs to be opened up to professional rugby," he added.
"Our proposition we think is a very viable one commercially, as well as filling the need for a Pacific Island team, and we would be able to bring the latest and greatest for not only the commercial operation of a franchise but also training, nutrition and all the other stuff that goes into it as well. Everybody else in Super Rugby would stand to benefit from what we could bring to the table as well
Funnily enough, I thought if the WSR/IPRC was relatively Japan-centric, i.e. having more than one team from there, then Hawaii might have been an option for Twiggy's comp. Unless of course, Sri Lanka were in it, then you end up with the same time difference problems as Super Rugby
Japan and the Pacific Islands for Aussie Super 9's!
Let's have one of these in WA! Click this link: Saitama Super Arena - New Perth Stadium?