Pacific Islands United team could become West Indies of league

Wow thiswould be interesting, i would love to actually see something like this happen.

I think people need to step away from the national identity issue. Money speaks volumes in professional sport. The idea of a pacific island vs New Zealand in a test one off or to better gel a side a test series is plausible. I believe that the PI team should come from Samoa Tonga fiji Cook Islands and other pacific island nations that exhibit talent in the future. PNG should be excluded from the team as the development in the nation is geared towards an NRL team and all efforts should be moved into allow the game to develop along those lines as the nation is rugby league mad. The pacific island v New Zealand origin should begin after a World Cup year as to lock in those players who elected to play for their nations during that tournament. The match payments for PI V NZ need to be comparable to origin and the game marketed heavily to NZ. This idea offers NZ greater competition and more match time to compete against AUS. The PIvNZ would only compete in a mid year match/series. The PI team featuring exclusively in this series and the pacific nations competing in international tournaments. If the pacific islands can offer their players increased revenue and competition they may be able to encourage top athletes to represent them and strengthen their national squads. It would require heavy investment by RLIF NRL etc but returns should be seen in the series and increased international competitiveness that could arise.

Just stop forcing origin players to play for Australia... or just make a rule born and breed only. Seriously Origin is the biggest sporting joke in recent years. It isn't even NSW vs QLD anymore. Topping it off is the domination. Joke of a game. NRL matches are more exciting these days. Yeah, in the past when it was fair it was the pinnacle of league. Now it is just rubbish.

Maybe a combination of png,Fiji,and south sea team and Tonga, Samoa, cook islands might work because they are actually the same race if people which would give them more pride in playing for the teams but i think the influence of the islander player's in the game has made the game a bore fest cos there all big and stupid with no skill

Glenn Innes at no point did I consider your opinion 'crap' nor did I imply such. I can have a different perspective, but that does not diminish the worth of what you are saying. Its just differing opinions. I take what you have said now and accept realistically the merit of your comment. My only caveat would be that the League itself need to get off the media coat tails a little and recognise that for Rugby league to expand, it needs to venture outside of its parochialism and recognise that there are big opportunities that will benefit all outside, but near to this country. Rugby League needs to become international if it wants to grow.

Bearfax - Not really Yes the Australian soccer team has plenty of players who ply their trade overseas but nearly all of them played their junior soccer here in Australia - indeed soccer is the biggest participant sport in Australia and has been for a long time this is a world away from Rugby League in the south pacific. But I do agree the South Pacific along with New Zealand are the most realistic growth markets for our sport but the problem I see is our game is controlled by commercial media (that is the reality whether we like it or not) and commercial media is simply not interested in the Island nations because they are poor and there is no money to be made there. The truth is the NRL is more intersested in sticking teams in the AFL states where even if they can get 10% of the population interested it will deliver more coin than the whole of PNG.Modern sport particularly in Australia where like the USA it is controlled by commercial media is simply an entertainment product. Prosletysing the game in places where it has serious growth potential but there is little prospect of making shareholders rich is given lip service but that is about as far as it will ever go. Think I am talking crap - there will be a team in Perth where maybe 5% of the population tops could give a fig about Rugby League long before there will be a team from PNG despite the games popularity there.Sometimes greed can bite off your nose to spite your face!

James Segyaro for 9

I don't think Falou is coming back any time soon - He seems to be killing it in rugby and really enjoying himself :(

Haha that's exactly what I jeep saying when people bring up this argument. Scotland RU are livid at NZ for poaching McCaw

To a degree I can see your point Glenn Innes. Only Papua New Guinea has a strong local Rugby League competition and that's why the eventual inclusion in the NRL has strong backing and would work. Rugby League in Fiji, Samoa and Tonga on an organisational level is not very strong and though lots of people play it, both Fiji and Samoa have only one or two major competitions involving only a total in each country of 12 teams each. Tonga is significantly larger with over 3000 players registered, but they dont have the strong infrastructure and money that PNG has, mainly because the game at home is not the stand out No 1 sport and of course they dont have such a large population base. But the comparison I guess, though on a much larger scale, has been Australia with soccer. Australia has been a rising power in that game over the last decade mainly because of an increasingly well run and heavily financed and backed local competition. Prior to that we had lots of small competitions of varying quality, but almost all of our National team was comprised of players playing overseas in competitions for other Leagues. They came home to represent Australia but most of them had lived in other countries for years, sometimes decades. Very few local players made the national teams because the cream were grabbed and played elsewhere around the World. Only in recent times has this situation begun to swing around. Soccer isnt the No 1 code here either but a lot of people play it and all it needed to thrive was improved organisation, coaching, financial backing and general support. Fiji, Samoa and Tonga in Rugby League are in a similar situation what Australia was in with soccer until recent times, but obviously on a much smaller scale. The game is played there, but to raise their standards at home, financial and managerial support need significant improvement. The players and support are there. It just needs the structure and money. A regular yearly international competition between PNG, Fiji, Western Samoa and Tonga along with perhaps an Indigenous Australian team and Maori team, or even matches against NRL clubs outside of the NRL comp, that was supported financially and given good PR, could help raise the status and perhaps sponsoring of home competitions.

There are some great posts and some funny ones but please if your not an Islander don't make reference to something you guys have no idea about. Who said the Pacific islanders don't like each other? There have been historic conflicts and conquest that had happen over 100 years and that was a long time ago. There is respect between all islanders back home or in New Zeland where a large population lives in peace and harmony. You have your bad apples and scaffle now and then but its not like what you guys are describing on here.

The analogy with the West Indian cricket team simply doesn't float for a number of reasons.Firstly cricket is and nas been for a very long time the national sport of those carribean nations that were British Colonies. The West Indian team comprises players who grew up playing cricket in those nations, A combined pacific Islands Rugby League team will be made up of players who grew up playing Rugby League in Australia a world away from the what the West Indian cricket represent.The real analogy would be if you started a team made of West Indian migrants to the USA who grew up playing Basketball in the States and called it the West Indies.That is what a pacific Islands Rugby League team would be the equivilant of. Also the carribean nations have much closer geographic proximity to one another than Fiji Samoa Tonga etc who are seperated by vast distances..Also they don't like each other much!

100% agree with that! How big could we make that every 4 years. I think if you get the right coaches involved. Build it up get the sponsors on board.it could be massive. If league can dominate this region, than you have the greatest source of rugby footballers on the planet at your disposal.. That is a win for NRL, even super league and of course the internationals. It's easier said than done, but that is something to be aimed at. I think working on France and I know this is left field, and would be tough, I believe we need to look at South Africa as well.

Patrick, yes they would. Playing for Australia pays better. Just ask Akuila Uate!

I think it would be great to get a pacific islands team to play Australia or New Zealand as an exhibition match. Depending on the success and how much the teams and players want it to continue, it could become a regular annual thing such as State of Origin or Indigenous All Stars vs NRL All Stars. Wouldn't like to see this in the World Cup but once a year it would kill it.