IRB public indifference to Pasifika plan

By CHRIS RATTUE and WYNNE GRAY

Cullen Sports boss Mick Watson will head to London still hopeful of a rendezvous with Sanzar bosses over his Super 12 plans, despite the International Rugby Board's public indifference about the meeting.

Watson will have separate meetings in Auckland today with Samoan and Tongan rugby representatives.

He is still confident he has IRB support for his organisation to run a Pacific Islands Super 12 team, called Pasifika, and be involved in running a test side as well.

Watson, who has other Pasifika business in Europe, said: "A lot can change every 24 hours. I think when you have an IRB chairman and CEO who see value in this then you have a fairly good chance of making it work."

Watson described NZRFU chief executive Chris Moller as "calm and open-minded" after a lengthy telephone discussion yesterday.

Meanwhile, Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance head Charlie Charters, from Fiji, has backed Cullen Sports as a potential partner.

Charters wrote to the NZRFU on Monday, a day after meeting Watson, to say Cullen Sports would be a "very credible" private partner.

The alliance strongly favours running a team in the Pacific Islands, but this seems unlikely to occur.

A key issue was whether the NZRFU would sanction a Pacific Islands team in New Zealand.

Meanwhile, the IRB appears to have gone lukewarm on brokering any discussion, while Sanzar is keen on meeting the game's rulers only for a "please explain" forum about the Pasifika expansion scheme.

Moller said yesterday: "[IRB chief executive] Mike Miller told me he had no knowledge of such a proposal or indeed any specific meeting [between Sanzar and Cullen]."

Miller phoned Moller yesterday in Sydney, where he had been attending Sanzar talks on a range of topics.

Those meetings continued yesterday, so Moller was unable to host Watson in Wellington, as tentatively agreed, to hear his group's Pacific Islands proposal.

Moller was unclear if he could meet Watson before flying to London at the weekend for a Sanzar meeting and discussions with the IRB.

"At our Sanzar discussions here the only agreement we made about the Pacific Islands team was that we needed to have a meeting with the chairman and CEO of the IRB to find out what transpired between them," Moller said. "When he [Miller] rang he did not understand why the issue had created such a fuss in New Zealand. But he did apologise."

The NZRFU was furious the IRB met Cullen Sports during last month's meeting of global officials in Auckland, and did not tell New Zealand about the development.

When contacted by the Herald, Miller did not understand why the NZRFU felt slighted.

"Nothing had happened," Miller said from London, "We do not know if anything will. It was a fact-finding mission if you like, a visit, a look. We wanted to have a meeting and would then tell the NZRFU."

The story so far

* Warriors owner Cullen Sports is revealed as being involved in an audacious plan to run Pacific Islands Super 12 and test teams.

* Cullen Sports boss Mick Watson confirms meeting with three senior IRB officials, including chairman Syd Millar, in January.

* Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance boss Charlie Charters meets Watson, who presents him with the broad concept.

* NZRFU chief executive Chris Moller is furious with the IRB for having met Cullen Sports without informing him.

* A meeting between Watson and Moller falls through, although they talk by telephone. Watson is confident of meeting Sanzar chiefs during an IRB conference in London.