Updated ,first published
Super Rugby celebrated its 30th anniversary this year, having launched as a 12-team professional competition in 1996. The competition has changed shape and size seven times in three decades, peaking with an unwieldy 18 teams a decade ago.
COVID-19 and financial strain have cut back Super Rugby ever since, however, and next year it is set to go back to the size of its amateur days in the early 1990s: the Super 10.
Super Rugby Pacific is on track to become a 10-team competition in 2027 after Moana Pasifika’s owners released a statement confirming they had made the “difficult and heartbreaking decision to disband” at the end of the 2026 season, due to it “no longer being viable” financially.
Moana Pasifika are playing the Waratahs on Friday night in Sydney.
The New Zealand-based franchise was launched in 2022 as a team to showcase talent from Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands, but struggled on and off the field, winning just 15 games in five seasons.
Based in Auckland, where the Blues were never happy about having neighbours, the team moved homes often and struggled for crowds and revenue. When World Rugby and New Zealand Rugby wound back funding, private investment was difficult to find. No white knights have emerged.
As the licence holder, NZR released a statement on Wednesday saying it was aware of parties potentially interested in taking the club forward, but that is a long shot, meaning Super Rugby Pacific bosses will now move quickly to settle on a new competition format for next season.
There has already been extensive contingency planning done. When the Rebels were shuttered in 2024, there was speculation Moana could also fold.
The simple solution is set to be Super Rugby Pacific moving to a 10-team competition in 2027, with five Kiwi teams, four Australian teams and the Fijian Drua.
That will open the door to full home-and-away season of 18 rounds. Many club bosses like the idea given they currently have two byes in an awkward 16-round, 11-team competition. But it would also require the season to be slightly longer – starting in late January-early February – and likely with a shorter, top-four finals series.
Super Rugby last had 10 teams between 1993 and 1995, when the Southern Hemisphere provincial competition featured two Australian teams (NSW and Queensland), four Kiwi provinces, three South African sides and the top Pacific Island side of Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa.
Waratahs coach Dan McKellar, who expressed sympathy for the Moana players and staff, said on Wednesday he backed the 10-team, home-and-away model.
“Just make it really, really simple and make it easy for fans to follow and connect with the game,” McKellar said.
“I don’t think we play enough rugby here. There are guys that play Test matches and play Super Rugby and play 30-odd games a year. [But] I think we’re leaving a lot of our players short in terms of professional, high-level rugby to allow them to develop. And that’s what I’d be a supporter of.”
Broadcasters are largely interested in still getting, at least, the 83-games a year under the current deal. And in that sense, Moana’s exit will provide some security for the perennially under-pressure Western Force through to the end of the current broadcast deal in 2030.
Australian broadcaster Stan is keen to explore the reintroduction of conferences, to ensure Aussie teams have a guaranteed presence in the finals. Conferences were a part of Super Rugby between 2011 and 2020, but fell out of favour when Aussie teams began qualifying for home finals with a poorer record than most of the Kiwi teams.
With Moana Pasifika players facing highly uncertain futures, the Waratahs will have to be wary of an emotional response from the side in Sydney on Friday. NSW have lost three on the trot against Tana Umaga’s men.
McKellar named flanker Angus Scott-Young for his first Waratahs start and welcomed back Jake Gordon and Lawson Creighton to the starting side. Star recruit Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii could be back from a hamstring injury next week against the Crusaders at Super Round in Christchurch.
Asked if he would look to recruit any of the Moana Pasifika players who will be searching for new clubs, McKellar said he was more focused on the retention of his existing squad.
But Sydney-raised Moana Pasifika five-eighth Patrick Pellegrini could be in the Waratahs’ sights, according to informed sources. Pellegrini represented NSW Schools and the NSW under-20s before playing Shute Shield for West Harbour in 2020-21. He moved to the UK before joining Moana Pasifika in 2024, and has also played seven Tests for Tonga.
In other team news, Zac Lomax will make his starting debut for the Force against the Crusaders on Saturday and Wallaby fullback Tom Wright will play his first game for the Brumbies since rupturing an ACL against the Springboks in August. Wright will start against the Highlanders in Canberra on Saturday.
Watch every match of Super Rugby Pacific live and exclusive on Stan Sport.
Iain Payten is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.