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Ardie Savea hopes to recreate some of them Pacific Ocean magic with Blues in 2027, taking the lessons he learned in his solitary season with the now-defunct club into his new chapter with another Auckland outfit.
Savea’s Player of the Year campaign as captain of Moana Pasifika may have ended with only individual accolades, but the proud Samoan says he felt a change that went beyond four lines on the field in that 2025 season.
Not wanting that momentum to go to waste All black people The captain had a message for potentially disenfranchised Moana Pasifika fans when he announced his move to the Blues.
“Obviously, first of all, I want to pay tribute to Moana and their team without them being in competition,” Savea began, before answering what the biggest takeaways from his Moana Pasifika experience were.
“I think it’s about playing with a bigger purpose than the team, and playing bigger than the result on Saturday. The purpose is to bring people together, and even though Moana failed in terms of rugby and the failure in the final, I think we’ve brought Super Rugby back, and that’s through the joy and the laughter and the fun, but also the hard work that we’ve brought.
“So we’re playing for the people, and the Blues are playing for the people, too. And it just so happened that Moana was in ’09 and we weren’t there. So I just hope the Moana fans can join the Blues fans, and we’ll create something special this year.”
For Savea, it’s about more than just the product on the field; he says he wants the Blues’ off-field success to be as important as the on-field success he hopes to achieve. What does success look like off the field? “Unifying our city through the way we play, through the way we do things; bringing laughter, joy and excitement.”
“I think it’s so important, and the Blues are, and it’s a great opportunity for us to be. We represent so many ethnicities and cultures in Auckland. So what a great chance to not only use rugby as a vehicle, but through how we act and how people feel, give people hope through the way we play rugby, but also the way we really are as people.”
Joining the third club of his Super Rugby career, Savea says change doesn’t get easier but always comes with opportunities. At the Blues, he says the opportunity he sees aligns with chief executive Karl Budge’s vision and extends beyond the field.
“I think as humans, we’re afraid of change, but in order to, I guess, be pioneers and things, we have to do it, and we have to be brave enough to jump off the edge and do things differently. It might not pay off, but at least you can look back and say we tried, and I think our game needs that. So game day, make it fun, make it fun, not make it fun.” you build things around it to create massive entertainment, so kids beg their parents to go to the game, they might not watch the game, but it creates an atmosphere that the players feel.