By Christina Persico, RNZ Pacific senior bulletin editor
Moana Pasifika captain Miracle Fai’ilagi says he still hopes the franchise will be saved.
Shareholders of Moana Pasifika have voted to appoint liquidators to the franchise’s holding company.
The Pasifika Medical Association (PMA) said it could no longer continue funding the team and it was “deeply disappointed” to have reached this point.
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New Zealand Rugby said the tender process for the Moana Pasifika licence was continuing, despite the franchise now going into liquidation.
And New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has suggested all might not be lost.
It is understood a private consortium or the New Zealand, Australian and Samoan governments could come to the rescue.
The team’s debts include a NZ$2.7 million crown loan. Liquidator Stephen White said it was still early days.
No approaches yet
“We haven’t yet had any approaches, but we are aware that NZ Rugby has had various conversations with parties,” White said.
“We know there are consortia out there that have looked at the franchise over the course of the recent past. So we’ll be reaching out to those people soon to see if there’s anything we can assist with.”
Fai’ilagi has not given up on the team playing in next year’s Super Rugby Pacific competition.
“We want this team to continue,” he told RNZ Morning Report’s John Campbell.
Fai’ilagi was brought out of playing club rugby in Samoa to now captain the Super Rugby franchise.
“I was just living a dream of someone else, all the older kids back home,” he said.
“Just having this team, it’s quite special to me, and just to get the opportunity to come here and express myself.
“When I was young, I hardly connected with people — I’m too shy and other stuff. But coming here, you meet a lot of people, and those people will help you along the way.
‘Special connections’
“And that’s something special about this group, the connections of other boys coming in.
“We have a guy from Japan, we have … Tom Savage from Great Britain, and other boys from other cultures. So it is quite special, this team, and just bringing all of those guys together and just build this group. It’s pretty massive.”
Fai’ilagi said there was 100 percent effort in the build-up to what may be their last-ever game — against the Brumbies in Canberra on Saturday.
“We’re not just counting days, but we’re just making the days count, just turning up every week despite everything that’s happening in the background.
“But the boys always turn up, like 100 percent effort, and with the energy as well, so just having fun.”
Meanwhile, the chief executive of a rugby consortium hoping to purchase Moana Pasifika said she was devastated to learn that the franchise had gone into liquidation.
Proposal to save club
Tracy Atiga, from Kanaloa Rugby, said they were still waiting to hear back from New Zealand Rugby about their proposal to save the club.
She told RNZ Pacific Waves she was not surprised by the liquidation.
“It was actually something that we were preparing for, because you get to a point with with these types of things in business, and you kind of know what the next steps will be,” she said.
“Even though it wasn’t what we had hoped for, we understood that that was a potential outcome, and it’s come to fruition now. So we just got to move forward and new strategy, and go from there.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.