By introducing the Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika, Super Rugby 2022 centres the Pacific

Here's what you need to know about Super Rugby: first and foremost, it starts this weekend. Tomorrow (Friday) night, in fact.

Secondly, it's now called Super Rugby Pacific.

It's been born out of last year's trans-Tasman series and a long-held desire among rugby fans on both sides of the Tasman to have a competition based around our own teams, playing in our cities and time zones.

But also, with a long-overdue injection of Pacific island flair. More on this in a moment.

In truth, this new competition is the next iteration of formats derived over the previous COVID-19-impacted 18 months, and most crucially, the departure of South African-based teams to the northern hemisphere.

The opening game of the new Super rugby Pacific season has been postponed after several players tested positive for COVID-19.

Now, while it's certainly true that joining northern hemisphere competitions has been an oft-threatened but unplayed card held by the South African Rugby Union, the break-up of Super Rugby as we knew it in March 2020 finally forced their hand.

That, and New Zealand rugby (NZR) declared that the break-up of Super Rugby as we knew it was the time to turn our attention on ourselves. Rugby Australia (RA) didn't need a lot of convincing.

With international borders closed, locally-based competitions were quickly developed out of necessity – for contractually required content and the income thereof, specifically.

But the intention from NZR and RA was always that they'd come together under one banner. They couldn't quite make it happen properly in 2021; the six-week trans-Tasman series was tacked onto the end of the respective domestic competitions and wasn't confirmed until the week of – but it's been all systems go ever since.

The result is