Tana Umaga fears the region's talent will gravitate to league and derail the Tongan and Samoan Test sides without a Super Rugby presence. The Super Rugby Pacific franchise is set to be disbanded after ownership confirmed it would not continue funding the unviable operation beyond this season.
The United States Geological Survey reported that the earthquake struck early Tuesday evening local time at a depth of about 237 km, which is significant as shallower earthquakes are felt more strongly at the surface.
For a while, Sam Vea had been smelling sulphur on the air only mildly infernal, like a distant sniff of hell, but sulphur nonetheless. Still, on the Saturday evening when the explosion happened, he sat up in fright. It sounded so near he thought some cataclysm had occurred right there, in his neighbourhood. The windows trembled. The curtains fell off. Vea peeked out of his house but saw nothing destroyed or on fire.