With Moana Pasifika's departure from Super Rugby Pacific now confirmed, the question has quickly shifted from 'why are they leaving' to 'who replaces them' — and Two Cents Rugby has waded through the options with a blunt verdict for viewers hoping for a quick fix.
"A question which I've seen come up quite a lot is, who should replace Moana in the competition," host Hamish opened the latest episode. "There's a few options that have been banded about: returning to South Africa, can Australia have another team, bring back the Jaguares, the Japan option. Let's go through some of these main choices that seem to be coming up."
The first option under the microscope was the Cheetahs, the long-suffering Bloemfontein side who have now been booted out of two tournaments. "The Cheetahs still exist," Two Cents noted. "Remember they were in Super Rugby back in the day. They had some pretty fun teams to watch. They were always a fun team to watch. The Cheetahs always played sexy and attacking rugby. Then they were kicked out of Super Rugby and they must be the unluckiest team because they headed over to Europe, which is a familiar storyline now. They joined the Pro14, played there for a few seasons, and then they got kicked out of that competition as well when the Bulls, Stormers, Sharks and Lions headed over to Europe to form the URC. The Cheetahs got the boot once again."
On paper the Cheetahs have fans, history, a ground and a strong Rassie Erasmus connection. "They're searching for higher level rugby. They haven't been able to get that, but they're looking for it." The catch, Two Cents argued, is geography: "South Africa at the moment is too far. It is just too far. They don't have the money, or the will, to be sending players 18 hours. I can't see them setting up a comp which has one team based in South Africa and everyone, or half the teams, have to travel there once during the year."
A reborn Rebels or fresh Australian franchise made more sense logistically. "The Rebels were in it until they went bust a few years ago. Geographically, you think the Rebels would make more sense than any other options because they're close, part of the whole region. Super Rugby downsized — at least New Zealand Rugby's argument for it was the travel and the time zones, keeping things more localized, more fan-friendly in terms of kickoff times. They've got the population for it. It's just a very competitive sporting market in Australia."
The third pitch — a return of the Jaguares — came wrapped in an admission the show did not hide from. "Maybe this is the whole reason I'm doing this video, it's just an excuse to bust out this beauty of an old Jaguares jersey," Two Cents joked. "The Jaguares were an interesting story. They started off lacklustre, a whole heap of Argentinian stars virtually the Argentinian national team. Over the years they got better, they made themselves a Super Rugby final, they played a unique brand of rugby. Sensible, structured rugby. Here in New Zealand the time zones actually worked out pretty well — decent morning kickoffs when it was evening in Argentina. They got decent crowds in Buenos Aires. There is a fair bit to like about the Jaguares option in terms of the depth and in terms of the time zones at least from a New Zealand perspective."
The final option, and the most financially seductive, was a Japanese return in the form of a Sunwolves revival. "Japan's got the money, everyone wants to get in on that money," Two Cents said. "We see so many New Zealand and other countries' players heading to Japan, a lot of South African players over there now, Australian players head to Japan to chase the yen. Maybe we can rope the Japanese into getting another team set up, like we had with the Sunwolves back in the day, to get some of that yen going. The time zones are similar to Perth."
The verdict? "For mine, it is none of them. None of these options should be considered. Maybe considered, but I don't think Super Rugby is in a position right now certainly to add any of these teams." In short: the hole left by Moana Pasifika, Two Cents argues, is not a problem the competition can fix by swapping in another logo. The brief against each candidate is logistical, financial and, in the case of the Cheetahs coming to Auckland, commercial. "People aren't going to sell out Eden Park to go watch the Cheetahs," he said.
