IT IS difficult to know how many copies of David Copperfield are bought by members of the South Seas rugby community each year, but anyone reading his Dickens will view the executives who run SANZAR as Micawbers in reverse.
They are always waiting for something to turn down. For years now, the Fijians, Samoans and Tongans have been pleading for a stage on which to perform, other than the annual Test windows, when important players are either too knackered to run or hopelessly entangled in dodgy club contracts, and the quadrennial World Cups, when they are expected to play the house down for four or five weeks and then ostracised by the people compiling the fixture lists.
It is easy to forget that in the beginning, Super Rugby always had a place for the winners of the Pacific Tri-Series.
During the amateur era, each of the three major islands played either Super 6 or Super 12.
Super 12. That ended with professionalism in 1996 and while the tournament bosses expanded their tournament four times – to 12 teams, followed by 14, 15 and 18 – they have never given the Pacific sides so much as a crumb off the table.
Are we about to wash out one of the sport’s most stubborn stains?
According to reports in All Black country, both Fiji and a Moana Pasifika side may be included in the new 12-team competition being pieced together by the New Zealanders and Australians, with a likely starting date of 2022.
To which we can only say: about time too – but better late than never.
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