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New Zealand's Super 15 rugby coaches are pushing for a team of Pacific island players to be included in the southern hemisphere competition when it expands in 2016.
The team, based in Auckland, would be part of an 18-club competition under a proposal from the head coaches of New Zealand's five existing Super Rugby teams.
The New Zealand Herald reports that the competition will also include a Japanese team and South Africa's Southern Kings and Golden Lions, who currently compete in an end-of-season play-off for a Super Rugby berth.
Meanwhile, EPRU president Cheeky Watson says the Southern Kings will definitely be competitive in next season's Super Rugby play-off, despite being denied the opportunity of playing premier division Currie Cup rugby next year.
