NZ Rugby seeks legal advice over NRL’s use of ‘Chiefs’ brand for new PNG franchise

The decision to name the new PNG NRL franchise the “Chiefs” has sparked a cross-code stoush, with New Zealand Rugby seeking legal advice in a bid to protect its Waikato-based Super Rugby franchise of the same name.

Four days after PNG Prime Minister James Marape revealed the moniker for the nation’s team ahead of its entry into the NRL in 2028, the NZRU filed a trademark application for the “Chiefs” name.

Rugby’s Chiefs, formerly known as the Waikato Chiefs, were founded in 1996. The NRL’s use of the name has raised eyebrows in rugby circles in New Zealand, given the black, red, and yellow colours associated with PNG are already in use at the Super Rugby club.

The NZRU has engaged lawyers to look into the matter and has written to the Australian Rugby League Commission seeking an explanation

“New Zealand Rugby is aware that there are examples of the Chiefs name used by teams in different sporting contexts internationally,” NZ Rugby said in a statement.

“Our focus is on protecting the Chiefs trademark in Australasia, where our rights date back to the team’s inception, when Super Rugby began in 1996.

“We can confirm we have corresponded with the Australia Rugby League Commission about their decision to name a new team the Chiefs and are working in good faith toward an outcome that works for all parties.”

The NRL declined to comment, but privately feels it is on safe legal ground. The ARLC had trademarked the name “PNG Chiefs” rather than the more generic name “Chiefs”.

There are several examples of Super Rugby teams sharing a name with other Southern Hemisphere sporting franchises. The Blues brand is also used by NSW (rugby league and cricket) and the Carlton Blues (AFL), while the Hurricanes share a name with the Hobart-based Big Bash (cricket) franchise.

Vanuatu United FC, the soccer club who will compete in the new FIFA-backed OFC Pro League, are also known as the Chiefs.

There has long been a rivalry between rugby league and union when it comes to signing up the best footballing talent. Both codes have taken a strong stance against Rugby 360, with the NRL threatening decade-long bans for players and agents who engage in talks with the proposed breakaway league.

The rival codes called a temporary truce, of sorts, when two of Sydney’s best junior nurseries, Barker College (rugby) and St Gregory’s College (league), participated in a hybrid match last week.

The key parties behind the Papua New Guinea club announced last month that the team would be known as the Chiefs, picking the name ahead of the Pythons.

“Before there was a prime minister, and a King or Queen in England, the sovereign head within the tribe was the chief,” Marape told the PNG board and NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo.

“In our country, about 30 per cent [of tribes] are matrilineal, so it fits in well when girls run on as Chiefs because there is a traditional context in our history.

“In East New Britain and New Ireland, women were chiefs. They hold land rights, they make the final decisions, so the name is fitting.

“The name just blends in well with the authenticity of where we came from as a nation of so many tribes, united into one nation in 1975, and gifted by Australia. It has a strong meaning to our authentic identity.”

NZ Rugby owns the Chiefs brand, but the Chiefs themselves have spent a considerable amount of time, money, and energy building it over the past three decades. Both parties are determined to safeguard what they have built.