Pasifika SR team

[mariner4life]

@rapido firstly Totai, how was your experience playing for Tonga? Love it did you? Honoured to represent them were you?

Secondly, i honestly could not have given a single fuck if Fekitoa, Frizzel and Fifita played for Tonga over NZ. Not one single solitary fuck.

[Kirwan]

@mariner4life said in Pasifika SR team:

@rapido firstly Totai, how was your experience playing for Tonga? Love it did you? Honoured to represent them were you?

Secondly, i honestly could not have given a single fuck if Fekitoa, Frizzel and Fifita played for Tonga over NZ. Not one single solitary fuck.

Lomu?

[mariner4life]

@kirwan said in Pasifika SR team:

@mariner4life said in Pasifika SR team:

@rapido firstly Totai, how was your experience playing for Tonga? Love it did you? Honoured to represent them were you?

Secondly, i honestly could not have given a single fuck if Fekitoa, Frizzel and Fifita played for Tonga over NZ. Not one single solitary fuck.

Lomu?

did Tonga exist in 1994?

[Rancid Schnitzel]

Lomu was born in Auckland wasn’t he?

I’m quite happy for players born and raised in other countries to be “off limits”. But good luck telling that to them if they would actually prefer to play for the ABs.

[Snowy]

@rancid-schnitzel said in Pasifika SR team:

Lomu was born in Auckland wasn’t he?

Yes. He had the choice and chose the country of his birth (I'm a cynic so I won't suggest that there might have been other reasons too). Far be it for me to suggest that that will just continue.

[Kirwan]

@mariner4life said in Pasifika SR team:

@kirwan said in Pasifika SR team:

@mariner4life said in Pasifika SR team:

@rapido firstly Totai, how was your experience playing for Tonga? Love it did you? Honoured to represent them were you?

Secondly, i honestly could not have given a single fuck if Fekitoa, Frizzel and Fifita played for Tonga over NZ. Not one single solitary fuck.

Lomu?

did Tonga exist in 1994?

Rugby team started in 1924.

My main point is NZ born Tongans and Samoans that have played for the ABs have been some of our best players.

If they are now to be pressured into playing for countries of their heritage instead of where they were born, we are not only weakening our Super rugby depth, but the AB depth as well.

[Crucial]

@rapido said in Pasifika SR team:

and this .....

https://www.reddit.com/r/rugbyunion/comments/muo8nm/incriminating_recording_of_nzrpa_boss_released/

Get this horrible fucking franchise out of our domestic system, please!

I don't fucking want it. Any of it. Aucklanders should be Aucklanders (or Shoreites), not whites and browns.

Solves nothing, won't last anyway, but brings shit loads of negative baggage.

Negative baggage to people with a negative outlook for sure.

You don't want it? Nobody asked you to play for them or support them. It's a way to deal to a decades long issue where other pacific nations have been held back. NH teams get strengthened, NZ and Oz get strengthened. I'd like to see a more competitive Fiji/ Samoa/Tonga in WR. I'm getting a bit sick of the same old same old.
WR have done something with providing some money. NZ have done something by providing a comp. Oz will have their arm twisted to agree to the setup.

[antipodean]

@rapido said in Pasifika SR team:

With this kind of thing:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/super-rugby/124896487/super-rugby-tonga-coach-welcomes-moana-pasifika-but-with-a-warning-for-all-blacks

Did Mark Robinson et al actually think an NZ Pacific franchise would be ever be a good PR thing for the NZRU?

That would be the same Totai Kefu that was born in Tonga and played for Australia? Fuck off you raving hypocrite.

The board at NZR needs to be sacked.

[antipodean]

@rapido said in Pasifika SR team:

and this .....

https://www.reddit.com/r/rugbyunion/comments/muo8nm/incriminating_recording_of_nzrpa_boss_released/

Get this horrible fucking franchise out of our domestic system, please!

I don't fucking want it. Any of it. Aucklanders should be Aucklanders (or Shoreites), not whites and browns.

Solves nothing, won't last anyway, but brings shit loads of negative baggage.

Tracy Atiga is obviously a duplicitous fluffybunny who is solely interested in feathering her own nest, pissy that her Hawaii concept isn't being supported.

It can't be clearer when she says this isn't for New Zealand players - then fuck off and play elsewhere.

[OleOleOle]

@antipodean she left a hell of a legacy at Auckland Basketball before she peeled out of there...

[mariner4life]

@crucial said in Pasifika SR team:

It's a way to deal to a decades long issue where other pacific nations have been held back. NH teams get strengthened, NZ and Oz get strengthened. I'd like to see a more competitive Fiji/ Samoa/Tonga in WR. I'm getting a bit sick of the same old same old.

how does this move do that?

[Crucial]

@mariner4life said in Pasifika SR team:

@crucial said in Pasifika SR team:

It's a way to deal to a decades long issue where other pacific nations have been held back. NH teams get strengthened, NZ and Oz get strengthened. I'd like to see a more competitive Fiji/ Samoa/Tonga in WR. I'm getting a bit sick of the same old same old.

how does this move do that?

It's a piece of a solution.
More available places for Pasifika players in Super Rugby likely means less players going to lower division teams in Europe where they don't get the same latitude (despite WR regs) to return to play for national sides.
Keeping those players closer also means more time together, sometimes combos will emerge in this team etc
Maybe players that can't make a NZ super side but are just WTG players can get to play and develop.
The experience and availability pool for Pasifika national sides increases.
It is then up to those counties to leverage this and improve.

[nostrildamus]

@mofitzy_ said in Pasifika SR team:

If it isn't based in a PI nation, it's a NZ team. Calling NZ-born players PI players is disingenuous, or you are opening a massive can of worms.

Speaking of a can of worms, NZ is a collection of Pacific Islands.
https://teara.govt.nz/en/pacific-islands-and-new-zealand/print

As you were..

[Stargazer]

I just read that Tim Nanai-Williams' contract with Clermont expires at the end of the Top 14 season and is unlikely to be re-signed. Maybe they should try getting him back, as he's capped by Samoa. Surely he still has a few seasons in him?

[mikedogz]

Sila Puafisi is a player that could play for this team. Back playing in NZ playing for Karaka. Counties Junior, played for Ta$man then overseas to Scotland, England, France. 27 Caps for Tonga. Tighthead Prop. Likely to play for Counties.

[Crucial]

@stargazer said in Pasifika SR team:

I just read that Tim Nanai-Williams' contract with Clermont expires at the end of the Top 14 season and is unlikely to be re-signed. Maybe they should try getting him back, as he's capped by Samoa. Surely he still has a few seasons in him?

Had him in my earlier possibles list.

[junior]

@kirwan said in Pasifika SR team:

@mariner4life said in Pasifika SR team:

@rapido firstly Totai, how was your experience playing for Tonga? Love it did you? Honoured to represent them were you?

Secondly, i honestly could not have given a single fuck if Fekitoa, Frizzel and Fifita played for Tonga over NZ. Not one single solitary fuck.

Lomu?

You mean the NZ born and raised, Jonah Lomu?

[Machpants]

@junior said in Pasifika SR team:

@kirwan said in Pasifika SR team:

@mariner4life said in Pasifika SR team:

@rapido firstly Totai, how was your experience playing for Tonga? Love it did you? Honoured to represent them were you?

Secondly, i honestly could not have given a single fuck if Fekitoa, Frizzel and Fifita played for Tonga over NZ. Not one single solitary fuck.

Lomu?

You mean the NZ born and raised, Jonah Lomu?

Ah but, according to a lot of media and PI supporters out there, NZ born and bred comes after PI heritage in which team they should play for

[maxwell]

:man_facepalming:

Source

[antipodean]

@maxwell NZR simply can't help digging holes for itself. It's about time we simply stepped back and said we're not seeking to be paternalistic in our relationships, you manage your own affairs and suffer the consequences.