League: Pacific nations to be pushed to new heights

The New Zealand Rugby League (NZRL) want to create a special Pacific Island tournament to select a high-profile Tangata Pasifika XIII to play the Kiwis in an annual fixture.

The idea is part of long-discussed plans to create more competition involving the Pacific Islands. NZRL director Keith Pittman said the concept was to create a special tournament in Auckland on an annual basis, involving Pacific countries like Tonga, Niue, Samoa, New Caledonia, the Cook Islands and Fiji.

Following the tournament - which would include NRL players turning out for their "country of origin" - a Tangata Pasifika team would be selected to play an annual game against the Kiwis to toughen them up before they play Australia each year.

The Pacific Cup is currently played but involves few players of note. The idea is to hold the new tournament "at a time so players currently in the NRL would play, giving the fixture a higher profile," said Pittman.

He said statistics suggested that 70 per cent of the game's players in New Zealand would be Maori or Pacific Islanders by 2010 and it would benefit the game in the islands and here for there to be a high-profile tournament, fixture and pathway into top league.

Australia had been looking at such a scheme for some time but Pittman said the NZRL felt New Zealand would do it better. "The benefit of NZ doing it is we understand more of the aspects of the culture," he said. "We would turn it into a cultural event as well as a league tournament."

The NZRL also see it as a way for players from the islands to move to play here and then in the NRL. Some would be eligible for the Kiwis if they held a New Zealand passport.

"Funding for this is a massive task to organise and will be on a massive scale," he said. "It's been discussed at international level already and will be formally discussed at the next international board meeting in May.

"The Pacific Island countries have been briefed and are very enthusiastic about it. Fiji is 100 per cent behind it," said Pittman.

After a couple of years a Pacific side could even tour the UK or Australia. However, matters are not close to that yet and Pittman said the hope was to kick off the concept in 2007.

"Next year is the centenary; we'll have the Tri Nations, plus the All Golds' UK tour and the World Cup in 2008. The time is right to bring the Pacific into the fold. We've spent time and money to build the game up," he said.

Players like Kevin Iro (Cooks), Manu Vatuvei and Awen Guttenbeil (Tonga) played in the last World Cup and there'd be many in NRL clubs in Australia who could be attracted to play for their island nation.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY