Moana Pasifika Future in Doubt as Owners Pull Out After 2026 Season

PMA to cut ties with Moana Pasifika, club needs new owner for 2027

Moana Pasifika’s owners will stop funding the Super Rugby Pacific club after the 2026 season, New Zealand media report. The Auckland side sit bottom at 1-7 and now need a new backer to survive beyond next year.

“We don’t get funding from them anymore, and that’s their decision...”

Moana Pasifika could fold unless a new backer is found, after players and staff were told their owners will cut the struggling Super Rugby Pacific club loose after the 2026 season, New Zealand media reported on Tuesday.

The Auckland-based side have been struggling on and off the field and sit bottom of the 11-team competition with a 1-7 record at the halfway mark of the season.

Moana Pasifika boss Debbie Sorensen told players and staff on Tuesday that ownership group Pasifika Medical Association (PMA) would meet its financial obligations for the rest of the 2026 season but won’t run the club next year, New Zealand media reported.

PMA didn’t immediately comment.

PMA’s withdrawal would leave the club needing a new owner to step in and save them.

Moana Pasifika entered Super Rugby in 2022 alongside Fiji’s Fijian Drua, helped by government grants and World Rugby funding.

It was envisioned as a professional pathway for talent to boost test rugby in Pacific nations, but plans to base the team in the Pacific never materialised.

It has effectively operated as New Zealand’s sixth team in the competition and second in Auckland, competing with established cross-town rivals the Blues.

End of the road for Moana Pasifika?#Rugby pic.twitter.com/f3WqhExC9t

— Chalyn.Rugby (@ChalynRugby) April 14, 2026

Building a fan base and attracting commercial sponsors has been a challenge, with the team’s home ground shifting last year from Mt Smart Stadium in south Auckland to North Harbour Stadium on the northern outskirts.

Although All Blacks loose forward Ardie Savea helped Moana to seventh last year - their best season - the club have struggled to lure top-tier players.

Moana coach Tana Umaga, the former New Zealand captain, is set to leave the club at the end of the season to join Dave Rennie’s All Blacks staff.

Earlier this season, Umaga urged World Rugby to provide more support.

“We don’t get funding from them anymore, and that’s their decision,”

he said.

“But if you look around the world, around how many Pacific Island players are playing in all these different countries, you don’t want to ⁠lose sight of who we ⁠represent and what we ‌can do for this game.”