Ardie Savea is changing the course of history with Moana Pasifika

You can’t dream it, if you can’t see it. 

With all due respect to Moana Pasifika, I doubt many aspiring professional rugby players have dreamed of pulling on their jersey. 

Until now, that is. 

The merit of having Moana Pasifika and the Fijian Drua in Super Rugby Pacific has never been in dispute. At least from my point of view. 

I’ve looked at the rise of Tonga and Samoa in international rugby league and argued long and loud that every attempt should be made to replicate that in rugby. 

No-one stands to benefit from that more than New Zealand Rugby (NZR). 

We look longingly to past Bledisloe Cup series’ and wonder if Australia can ever be the foe we remember them as. Well, we can wait all we like for that day to come or we can try and realise the playing and commercial potential of some of our other Pacific neighbours instead. 

A successful Moana Pasifika franchise would represent an enormous step in that direction. 

I wasn’t sure we’d ever see one. I feared it would always be a landing spot for players not deemed good enough for New Zealand’s other Super sides. 

It’s incredible to think one man has potentially changed the course of history, but that’s what Ardie Savea is in the process of doing. 

Moana Pasifika isn’t without icons. Coach Tana Umaga is as inspirational a leader as New Zealand rugby has seen, while Julian Savea remains a beloved figure despite his best playing days being well behind him. 

But Moana Pasifika doesn’t enjoy the, frankly, incredible success it’s had this season without Ardie Savea the man and the player. 

He could be plying his trade anywhere in the world right now. The doors of every club in the world would be open to him, should he wish. 

A legend of Hurricanes rugby, no-one would have batted an eyelid should Savea have sought to play out the rest of his Super Rugby career there.  

Only he didn’t.  

Always fiercely proud of his Samoan heritage, and open about the debt he owed his immigrant parents for giving him this opportunity in New Zealand, Savea went with his heart when signing for Moana Pasifika. 

I suspect some people regarded that as an indulgence, maybe even a token gesture. Great player that he is, surely even Savea couldn’t turn Moana Pasifika into a competitive outfit on his own. 

It was nice to see Moana Pasifika beat the Highlanders this year. Dismantling the Crusaders in Christchurch was a massive milestone, but nothing compares to Saturday’s 27-21 victory over the Blues at North Harbour Stadium. 

You’d run out of superlatives trying to describe the size of Savea’s contribution to that win.  What’s easier to do is imagine the Auckland rivalry that’s suddenly landed in NZR’s lap. Didn’t take much either, just the rubber stamping of Savea’s shift north from the Hurricanes. 

How many Blues players wished they were on the other side on Saturday night? How many players at other franchises pondered the same? How many kids watching in the stands or on television set their hearts on becoming Moana Pasifika players one day? How many fans, who weren’t at North Harbour Stadium, are going to be at FMG Stadium this weekend to see them play the Chiefs? 

Where there was once a team that few people were interested in, now there’s a side that could ignite the kind of Pacific passion in this country previously reserved for Tonga’s rugby league team. 

Who would have ever thought that? Who could ever have imagined that stadiums in New Zealand would become red seas of Tonga supporters?  

Not me. 

But then, who among us could have ever foreseen the impact Savea could have on Moana Pasifika this season and the team, in turn, upon this competition. 

He dared to dream, he dared to blaze the trail. 

Let’s hope this is only the beginning.