SANZAAR Open To Including Pacific Islands Team In Super Rugby

SANZAAR "praised the strong support and competitiveness of rugby in the Pacific Islands," saying it will not rule out their inclusion in a further Super Rugby expansion, according to the NEW ZEALAND HERALD. SANZAAR CEO Andy Marinos said that "the addition of a Pacific Island team into the Super Rugby competition was a serious consideration and one that would be assessed thoroughly." He said, "SANZAAR's never deliberately ignored the Pacific Islands. There's always been a natural transfer of players into Australia and New Zealand and you are seeing a lot of those guys coming through the system and are playing on a regular basis." Marinos said that SANZAAR "would assess the value of a Pacific Island team against the others to see whether or not it was a viable option." Marinos: "It's going to be a case of modeling and positioning and seeing from a commercial and high performance perspective, how does it stack up and how could it fit into a structure should we look to expand" (NZ HERALD, 6/30).