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Former All Blacks explain exactly why they are bankrolling the new MLR team in Hawaii

(Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

Former All Blacks player Ben Atiga has shared a video explaining why he and some of his ex-New Zealand teammates are backing the Kanaloa Hawaii team that plans to join Major League Rugby (MLR) in 2021. 

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Soon after the MLR expansion bid was confirmed this week, it emerged that former All Blacks Anthony Tuitavake, Atiga, Jerome Kaino, Joe Rokocoko and John Afoa – as well as former New Zealand sevens international Benson Stanley – had all clubbed together with friends and business associates Matt Atiga, Tracy Atiga and Cam Kilgour to found the first Maori and Polynesian owned and operated professional rugby club in the world, The Mercury Group. 

In a video shared by Atiga on social media, the overriding message that came through was that this can provide an opportunity for members of the Pacific community. Stanley said: “Kanaloa represents for me a chance to give back and create opportunity for others and those in our Pacific Island community.”

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Afoa echoed these sentiments, saying “the word that comes to mind is opportunity” while Tuitavake said that this is a chance to Pacific players “to be equal with everyone else”. This is a positive message, but Atiga equally presented the other side of the coin, explaining that he has “witnessed an uneven playing field that is faced by Polynesian players today”. 

Dual rugby World Cup winner and 83-cap All Black Kaino, who was born in Samoa, said that the goal of Kanaloa Hawaii is to create “an even playing field for Polynesians and Maoris to be able to get on the world stage”. He said: “The impact we have on people back home is enormous and you end up finding out that rugby is more than just a game. 

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCdS7stHEVG/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

“The people making decisions and the people giving (players) the opportunities have the same values as they have and the same village-type style ethos that we all grew up within a Polynesian background. That’s what it means to us to be able to create a legacy and create something special to be able to pass on to the next generation of rugby superstars.”

Former All Blacks winger Rokocoko, who was born in Fiji, stressed an important message as well that the MLR team has a “belief and faith that we put players before profit”. He said: “Our brothers and sisters are performing at a high-level week in week out and are not being treated the same or valued the same as a player from another nation. No other club, I’m sure, would have the same values or point of view in how a club should be run.”

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Atiga drove the message home, presenting a compelling argument for why this team will be such a benefit to players that have historically been deprived of chances. He said: “I believe we can make a significant impact in our Polynesian community that will also spill over and create a culture for our players to learn and develop and become great athletes, and not just that but to also become great leaders within their communities long after their playing days are over.” 

Of course, the great boon for any player and coach is that this will be one of the most exotic rugby locations on the map, but this means a lot more for the players behind it, as Kaino said, it presents the opportunity to “show what our little nations can do on the world stage”. 

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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