Massive news for Moana Pasifika, probably the biggest signing announcement in the entire history of Super Rugby.
No idea how they can afford him, but I’ve seen some people suggest they picked up some new finance from somewhere. It’ll be interesting to see where he plays, possibly at 7 given Inisi had such a huge season at 8 for them this year.
Ive been trying to think of other signings (in the NZ context in Super Rugby) that feel as momentous as this. There’s been players like Ma’a Nonu and Piri Weepu move about but that was as they were starting to wind down their careers; and even though Ardie is around 30 now it really doesn’t feel like he’s close to slowing down yet.
Beauden Barrett moving to Auckland was big, but he’s been coming & going between there & Japan so it hasn’t felt like quite the same commitment; Cruden moving to the Chiefs to get game time was pretty huge but while he was awesome he was never the tippy top player that Ardie is.
I was thinking maybe the next biggest move was maybe Lomu moving to the Hurricanes, but when I looked it up he’d actually already made a move (mostly forgotten I guess) to the Chiefs the season prior.
Anyway, stoked for MP and really hope they put some performances together worthy of the signing!
Bit of a steal for MP, especially considering they went 4 from 14 last season. Fingers crossed they back it up with an extra cpuple of wins!
Yeah apparently Ardie wasn’t very happy with how they dealt with Julian’s contract finishing but even if that’s part of the motivation I think its worth celebrating as a positive thing for all involved.
MP will hopefully be better next year if their first choice props aren’t injured out of the whole season, they still probably need 1 more solid lock and William Havili is not really convincing as 1st 5/8 - but they’ve got a lot of other positives throughout their squad so hopefully year 2 with the new coaching regime with the boost of Ardie will reap some rewards.