As Super Rugby twists itself in knots trying to work out how it can successfully reduce itself in size next year, the greatest shame of all is the door appears to be ever more firmly shut on the Pacific Islands. Because Fiji, Samoa and Tonga continue to bring to the world stage a truck load of high quality rugby players every year. The rest of the world has been able to lure Pacific players through club contracts and then snaffle them for their national sides through the residency rule. But above all else, Super Rugby bosses finally have to realise that what the competition needs more than anything else is more teams with credibility. Set up shop in the Pacific Islands and surely the outcome can't be any worse?

Source: New Zealand Herald May 09, 2017 07:18 UTC