Australia absent from new Pacific competition

The new Pacific rugby competition will kick off in June - without an Australian side involved.

The International Rugby Board (IRB) announced today the Pacific Five Nations teams - Fiji, Japan, Tonga, Samoa and the junior All Blacks.

The competition is part of IRB's plans to enable second tier rugby nations such as Japan, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa play on a more regular basis.

Australia are yet to decide whether they will field a team, possibly a second Australian XV, in the competition once they have decided on the structure of their own domestic competition.

The new competition will kick off in June, with each team playing four matches, two home and two away.

It is part of IRB's US$50 million ($72.57 million) programme launched in August last year to help the 17 tier one and two nations to be more competitive.

"The establishment of an expanded Pacific Nations tournament represents one element of the provision of enhanced competition platforms for tier two nations," IRB's Pacific Island advisory committee chairman Bob Tuckey said.

"An initial three-year programme of fixtures has been confirmed among the five unions and the IRB believes it can develop a viable commercial programme for the competition. The tournament schedule will be announced in mid February."

Tuckey said Australia were asked to be a part of the competition but were currently reviewing their domestic programme and the possible establishment of an inter-state competition.

"This would obviously have a bearing on the availability of players for the Pacific Nations tournament in the June-July period and therefore Australia will not participate at this juncture.

"While this is disappointing the competition promises to be a high quality one giving the tier two unions' much-needed additional matches leading into the 2007 Rugby World Cup."

"That said, the format of the tournament is not set in concrete and the format could be changed in the future to accommodate teams from other member unions. This would create additional matches for the tier two unions to provide them with even more competition."

In addition to the new competition, the IRB is working with the Pacific Island unions to establish a Pacific Triangular Championship that will provide regular competition for emerging players in the islands. The tournament will involve two representative regional teams from each from Fiji, Samoa and Tonga and will kick off on April 15 this year.

That competition will be played on a home or away basis over five rounds with a final.

"This new competition presents a marvellous opportunity for the 60 best locally based players in each Union to gain experience in a higher level competition and press their claims for national selection," Tuckey said.

- NZPA