Thumbs up for Pacific Islanders

The International Rugby Board has given approval for a combined Pacific Islanders team to play matches against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa next year followed by a Northern Hemisphere tour in 2005.

The Pacific team was given the green light at an IRB council meeting in Dublin last week after representations from Philipp Muller and Pio Bosco Tikoisuva, the chief executives of the Samoan and Fiji Rugby Unions.

"It is exciting news for rugby in the Pacific and potentially represents a step into the big time for the countries of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga," said Charlie Charters, chief executive of the Pacific Islanders Rugby Alliance.

"We have campaigned hard that the Islanders represents a crucial lifeline in the playing and commercial development of rugby in the Pacific, and it's great that we have won over the IRB."

Charters said in a PIRA statement that a formal schedule of matches would be confirmed by November at the IRB's next council meeting.

"It is up to us to propose to the IRB either a series of test matches against the SANZAR Unions or a one-country tour with multiple matches against one SANZAR union," Charters said.

"We will be canvassing the various unions within SANZAR to try to determine what is the best option."

PIRA had secured a schedule of matches for this year, including games against the All Blacks and Springboks.

But the IRB withheld their sanction and the tour had to be cancelled.

At that time the IRB said they feared the Islanders would dilute the sovereignty of the individual unions.

Charters said Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O'Neill spoke on behalf of SANZAR at the formal presentation by Muller and Tikoisuva and "wholeheartedly endorsed the proposal".

Representatives from the Fiji, Samoa and Tonga unions are tentatively scheduled to meet in Auckland next week to review the IRB's decision and make plans.

One of the items on the agenda will be the vexed subject of a common approach to the issue of eligibility that the IRB has signalled it intends to review.

PIRA has already signalled that it would only select players for the Islanders who were eligible to play for either Fiji, Samoa or Tonga.

"The honour of playing for the Islanders, and the commercial returns, are one of the strategies all three countries intend using to convince players of the importance of staying true to their countries of birth," Charters said.

"If we can develop a competitive schedule and the playing rewards are sufficient, the Islanders should help dry up the flood of talent that is flowing overseas."