Huge boost for Pacific Island rugby

The Junior All Blacks will compete in a new Pacific Six Nations tournament to kick off next year as part of the International Rugby Board's (IRB) pledge to help struggling nations.

The second-string New Zealand team will play against Australia A, Japan, Samoa, Fiji and Tonga in the inaugural annual tournament, scheduled for June-July 2006.

Feted as its biggest investment in high-performance rugby in 120 years, the IRB tonight announced a three-year development programme intended to improve the competitiveness of rugby worldwide.

The IRB executive committee passed the strategy after two days of meetings in Cape Town.

Among the pledges, the battling Pacific Islands will be given nearly $8 million in funding for high-performance initiatives.

The IRB had been criticised for ignoring the three Island nations.

Samoa, who almost upset eventual champions England in the 2003 World Cup, were thrashed 74-7 by the Wallabies two months ago while on the same weekend the All Blacks ran up 90 points against Fiji.

Despite assurances during the 2003 World Cup, little assistance had been given to rugby's second tier nations -- those behind the top nine in the world who compete in the northern hemisphere's Six Nations and SANZAR's Tri-Nations.

IRB chairman Syd Millar said the intention was for more teams to be genuine contenders to win the World Cup.

Millar believed the increased funding, infrastructure and competitions would make a "real difference" for second tier nations.

"This is an historic day for rugby as it represents an unprecedented level of investment in rugby worldwide," he said.

"Ultimately the aim is to ensure that more unions can challenge for and potentially win the Rugby World Cup."

The proposed Pacific Six Nations competition is one of seven new tournaments being bankrolled by the IRB.

The invitation to the Junior All Blacks and Australia A comes after the IRB originally mooted an eight-team tournament involving Queensland, New South Wales, ACT and the Western Force.

Officials from the New Zealand Union were unavailable for comment tonight.

Australian Rugby Union boss Gary Flowers gave conditional support to the concept but admitted concerns about the quality of opposition and timing of the competition for its A-program.

"It's great to see the IRB funding these initiatives but as far as Australia's involvement we would have to see the detail," Flowers said.

He said the ARU would prefer to see July used for Australia A matches, rather than June when under-21 players are unavailable due to the Junior World Cup.

"At this stage we're not totally committed to an A-program of that (structure)," Flowers said.

"There was some concern of the quality of the developmental value for an A side.

"We want to be satisfied that the competition fulfils our development needs."

He said matches against the likes of Argentina and second-string sides from strong tier one nations may be preferred for the A-program.

Overall, rugby's seven tier-two unions -- Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Canada, Japan, Romania and USA -- will receive $40 million worth of investments.

- AAP