‘Never got a chance’: Winston Peters laments not seeking funding from Japan, France before Moana Pasifika demise

Author: Adam Pearse,
Publish Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2026, 3:46pm

Foreign Minister Winston Peters says he is disappointed he wasn’t given a chance to lobby other nations for funding to help keep the Moana Pasifika rugby franchise going.

New Zealand Rugby today confirmed it had rejected a joint bid by the Samoan and Tongan Governments to save the Super Rugby Pacific franchise, as it was not convinced the bid offered enough financial security.

The franchise was put into liquidation after previous owner Pasifika Medical Association announced in April that it would no longer be able to fund the club beyond this season, which concluded on Saturday.

The proposal to save the club, which was co-ordinated by Moana’s former chief executive Pelenato Sakalia and supported by the New Zealand Rugby Players Association (RPA), was to run the club with a $10 million annual cost base.

This was to be underwritten by the Samoan and Tongan Governments, who were guaranteeing that they could jointly inject up to $12m ($6m each) over the next three years.

The two Governments were proposing to use aid and development funding they had already received from New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT).

Peters last month teased “good news” was coming regarding the franchise’s future, as he tasked officials with assessing how MFAT funding could be used alongside support from the Pacific Islands countries.

Reacting to NZ Rugby’s decision today, Peters said he was “very disappointed” by not being afforded more time.

“I needed another month actually because of the other people I wanted to speak to, like in France, like the UK and like Japan, but I never got a chance logistically to be able to pull it off.

“I’ll go to Japan very soon, I was going to raise it when I was there and I saw an opportunity to get far wider buy-in from other stakeholders, and that was a great prospect, but the timing was just too difficult.”

Peters said he had been “seriously confident” those nations would have invested in the franchise.

“Why would they invest? Because many Pasifika people are playing in France, playing in the UK, and playing in Japan, and I’m asking for a small, short-term help here.”

He believed he’d had a good chance of convincing former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and also would have raised it with French President Emmanuel Macron.

“The answer is always ‘no’ if you never ask ... you never know what your luck is.”

NZ Rugby has been contacted for comment.

Peters’ coalition partners had not been as eager to intervene in the franchise’s future. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon had been comfortable with Peters’ actions but ultimately felt it wasn’t the Government’s role to support a failing rugby franchise.

Peters today reiterated his opposition to that rationale.

“I see rugby in the Pacific, and particularly in Tonga and Samoa as an economic matter, and it seriously is, so from that perspective, yes, I see the Government lending a hand.

“It’s our front door in the Pacific and how can you have a Pacific contest without the Pacific in it?”

Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.