The uncertainty surrounding Super Rugby Pacific's long-term future has been further clouded ahead of a key meeting on Thursday following a report that New Zealand Rugby will discuss abandoning the competition entirely.
According to The Post, a move to a domestic 8-10 team New Zealand competition that replaces both the NPC and Super Rugby will be one of three proposals discussed at New Zealand Rugby's summit on Thursday.
Amid crippling financial losses that are slowly eating away at the cash injection provided by the Silver Lake private equity deal from 2022, the summit will bring together stakeholders from across the game with the powerful provincial unions reportedly spearheading the move away from Super Rugby.
A leaked document entitled "Rugby System Programme Rugby Summit pre-read" last week laid bare the extent of New Zealand Rugby's financial woes, headlined by a predicted cumulative loss of $[NZ]108m from 2024-2028.
The document also revealed that New Zealand Rugby had generated record revenue in 2025 of $285m but still recorded a $19m loss. And perhaps most significantly for the proposal to abandon Super Rugby, that only on two occasions had any of the country's five franchises turned a profit between 2019 and 2025 without a NZR handout.
However, there are reportedly two other potential options, including the adding of two further teams to Super Rugby - the competition has contracted to just 10 sides in 2027 following Moana Pasifika's demise - or the consolidation of Super and NPC entities into the home cities of each of the current five Kiwi franchises.
The NPC has for decades sat at the heart of New Zealand rugby and served as a key pillar in the country's talent pipeline. The competition is one of the key reasons why NZR has pushed back against a global season, which would see the Rugby Championship moved from an August-October window to a February-April slot.
But whether an NPC-style tournament could generate the revenue -- and more importantly turn a profit -- as an 8-10 team league, to be an improvement on Super Rugby's current balance sheet, and also serve NZR's high-performance objectives, would likely form a key part of the discussions on Thursday.
This is not the first time Super Rugby has arrived at a crossroads, with the onset of the COVID pandemic bringing about the complete dismemberment of the tournament as it was known and the end of South Africa's 24-year involvement in the competition.
Later, then-Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan famously pledged to go it alone after NZR had released its plan for a trans-Tasman competition that featured just three Australian teams.
Ironically, Melbourne Rebels were then wound up by RA in 2024 after the franchise was revealed to have debts totalling $[AU] 23m.
Tensions between RA and NZR have cooled significantly since then, with the current leadership on both sides of the Tasman only recently reaffirming their commitment to one another through the creation of an historic Anzac Bledisloe Cup Test.
But given Tuesday's report it appears all options are on the table as NZR seeks to arrest a financial slide that could have eaten through all of its Silver Lake cash - $262.5m - by 2031.
Rugby Australia is yet to address either the leaked summit pre-read or the report suggesting Super Rugby could be blown up once more, with plenty to address in its own backyard, including ongoing Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations with the Rugby Union Players Association.
Meanwhile, Super Rugby Pacific chief executive Jack Mesley, who heads up the commission jointly created by RA and NZR, only months ago reported a third consecutive year of growth for the competition, including a 11.7% increase in total season attendance and 16% and 10% broadcast growth on Sky NZ and Stan Sport [Australia].
"Three consecutive years of growth across key metrics tells us that Super Rugby Pacific is a competition that is heading in the right direction," he said.