KEY POINTS:
Fiji walked a lap of the Stade Velodrome after being eliminated from rugby's World Cup by South Africa this week.
At each side of the vast concrete bowl, they stopped and saluted the crowd. The roars of appreciation did not dim until they had headed towards the tunnel.
A week earlier, Tonga's departure had been similarly acknowledged in Nantes. And shortly before that, Samoa bowed out with a win over the United States at St Etienne, a bare-chested Brian Lima leading them in a final chant before a rapturous audience.
They remain firm favourites but this time two of them came desperately close to becoming more than amiable pool players who then move aside for the heavyweights when the serious stuff starts.
There is a whiff of revolution in the air and the Pacific Island teams are at the forefront. The message, loud and clear, particularly from Fiji and Tonga to the International Rugby Board is "what about us?".
The rugby world order is changing. Argentina are this weekend in the semifinals for the first time. The question is whether the IRB will move with it.
Of the three Pacific Island teams, the least contribution came from the team most expected to be their best.
Samoa struggled at the scrums and lineouts, their goalkicking was average and when they came to a game they simply had to win, against Tonga, they went all European instead of playing the way they do best.
As their retiring coach, All Blacks legend Michael Jones, remarked: "We've probably spent more time in the valleys than the mountain tops."
No probably about it.
Twelve of their players were born in New Zealand, several others played much of their rugby there.
Contrast that with Tonga (none New Zealand-born) and Fiji (one, Tokoroa-born Nicky Little).
Did Samoa err in not making use of more home-raised talent? Should they have used more European-based players on the basis that, even if they were in the second-tier competitions, at least had some hardened matchplay behind them?
Tonga came within one bounce of beating South Africa, and the thing about that 30-25 defeat was that had the ball turned left instead of right, no one could argue it would have been a fluke.
You want to assess how rapid their strides have been? Consider if that would have been possible even two World Cups ago. Forget it.
Tonga could not go the final metre by beating England but their success was built on discipline. They had a decent lineout, scrum and a good kicker, from hand and for goal in Pierre Hola, who plays his rugby for Kobe in Japan. They tackled like demons and were capable of the most structured game of the three.
Fiji? They toppled Wales in the best finish of the cup, 38-34, to make the last eight.
Against the South Africans, they scored two fine tries with 14 men on the park but to dwell on that is to miss the point about that game.
Fiji have always been capable of dazzling gems in the course of 80 minutes, along with the flat bits. This time they slugged it out for 80 minutes.
The lineout was good, they defended wholeheartedly, backs like Seru Rabeni, Vilimoni Delasau, Seremaia Bai and captain and halfback Mosese Rauluni had pace, vision and a cutting edge.
So, the cup is over, the three Pacific Island teams will break up and - and what?
The players return to their clubs round the globe and reconvene for those sporadic tests they get against the top-tier nations. Fiji, for example, have two tests next year, at home to France and Ireland.
The Pacific Islands concept, drawing the best from all three into one squad, is flawed in terms of enhancing the standard of the three individual components.
The PI squad, who played the All Blacks in a one-off test in 2004 and have also played Australia, are due to tour Europe late next year but it would be far better for the individual nations to fill those international fixtures. The trick is getting their best players released from their European clubs. Not easy.
"If we had the opportunity to fine-tune with the same players then we'd see an increase in the quality of our matches and we'd win those ones [like South Africa]," experienced Tongan forward Inoke Afeaki said. "Until we get two years with the squad it's going to be shaky right up to the next World Cup."
Rauluni, the 32-year-old Saracens halfback with the Brisbane twang, applauds the Pacific Island concept as "great", but with conditions.
"I think we have lost a lot of tests in the November window with the Pacific Islands tour going ahead next year," Rauluni said.
"You are taking away tests from Fiji, Tonga and Samoa. They need games by themselves and to only have two test matches next year is not enough, we need our games consistently with good competition."
Where to fit Argentina into the scheme of international rugby - Tri-Nations or Six Nations - is one of the issues troubling the IRB, although it insists it cannot force either competition to accept another country.
But chairman Syd Millar reckons the IRB is doing all it can to help out the Pacific nations.
"We are spending £30 million ($79 million) each year (divided between the tier-two teams, essentially those ranked No 11-20). We look after them as far as development is concerned.
"We started this [investment] in 2005, financing tournaments and people. We'll review that in April, then we'll decide what to do, but I don't see us reducing that [investment]."
Millar used a business analogy to explain the IRB strategy for the Pacific nations.
"If you invest in something you expect a return. Some are short-term investments, others long-term. Tonga's got just over 100,000 people. Fiji is not a huge place, but everyone plays rugby. "They punch above their weight. In Tonga and Samoa, where the average earning is £1000 per annum - if you have a job - the money we've given them is phenomenal. If you put a pound into the US rugby it doesn't get you much; put a pound into Fiji and it goes a long way."
When the Fijians moved into their quarter-final digs at the Radisson Hotel in Marseille, their eyes bulged.
"Flash, eh," quipped veteran lock Kele Leawere. "I was telling the boys, 'see this is what happens when you become a tier-one nation'."
A high-performance unit in Fiji, courtesy of IRB money, is helping develop young talent.
"We normally get forgotten," Leawere added."The tier-one nations eat the cake; we get the crumbs.
"We want to play the big boys, we want to give it a go. I mean, Tonga almost beat South Africa, we beat Wales.
"If we are able to keep our players without Bigger Brother coming and taking them, you never know, it could be Tonga Fiji, Samoa in the finals every four years."
Don't snigger. As this World Cup amply illustrated, times are changing.
