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Pacific Island double-header in Auckland in lead-up to World Cup
By Online Editors
A pair of World Cup warm-up clashes between Pacific Island nations and a New Zealand Heartland XV will be hosted at Eden Park on August 31.
In an event billed as the 'Pasifika Challenge II: The Road to Japan', Fiji will take on Tonga while Samoa will face the Heartland XV in back-to-back matches in Auckland in preparation for this year's World Cup in Japan, which kicks-off three weeks later.
The series of matches follows on from the inaugural Pasifika Challenge contest in 2017, which was used as a warm-up event for that year's British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand.
That year, an under-strength Wales side defeated Tonga 24-6, while the All Blacks thrashed Samoa 78-0.
This year's follow-up edition adds to the World Cup preparation of all three Pacific Island nations heading to the tournament in September.
It was announced last month that Fiji and the M?ori All Blacks will face off in a two-match series to be played in Suva and Rotorua in July, while Samoa and Tonga have one-off matches against the Wallabies in Sydney and the All Blacks in Hamilton a week after the Pasifika Challenge.
Additionally, all three teams will compete against Japan, the United States and Canada in the Pacific Nations Cup in the weeks preceding their clash at Eden Park.
The event also has the potential to be rewarding off the field for the financially-embattled Pacific nations, according to RNZ, as event organisers Left Field Live, an Australian-based sports rights and entertainment company, have added a monetary incentive based on attendance figures, which will be split evenly by the Fijian, Samoan and Tongan rugby unions.
Auckland Tourism Events and Economic Development, a branch of the Auckland Council, is involved with hosting the matches, and there is hope that fans will turn out in big numbers in similar fashion to the way in which they have supported the likes of Mate Ma'a Tonga in rugby league in recent years.
The Pasifika Challenge II will be played during the second round of New Zealand's amateur provincial competition, the Heartland Championship, meaning that some of the league's best players will be unavailable for their provinces for that weekend.
It will also be played simultaneously with the Mitre 10 Cup that round, and although no teams within the Auckland region are playing at home that day, Auckland will be playing against Waikato in Hamilton at 7:35pm, meaning a scheduling clash is likely between the competitions.
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Latest Comments
You’ve got to look forward to next weekend more than anything too.
They really use this sorta system? Much smaller pool of bonus points available, that would mean they have far less impact. Interestingly you must be withen winning range/chance in France’s Top 14 league, rather that just draw territory, so 6 points instead of 7. Fairly arbitrary and pointless (something the NRL would do to try and look cool), but kinda cool.
I said it Nick’s and other articles, I’m not sure about the fixed nature of matchups in these opening rounds. For instance, I would be interested in seeing an improved ranking/prediction/reflection ladder to what we had last year, were some author here game so rejigged list of teams purely based of ‘who had played who’ so far in the competition. It was designed to analyze the ladder and better predict what the real order would be after the full round robin had completed. It needed some improvement, like factoring in historical data as well, as it was a bit skiwif, but it is the sort of thing that would give a better depiction of what sort of contests weve had so far, because just using my intuition, the matchups have been very ‘level appropriate’ so far, and were jet to get the other end of the spectrum, season ranked bottom sides v top sides etc.
Go to commentsAs a former rugby player, I spent 20 years as a specialist tackling coach in the AFL, SANFL, and Southern Football League. During this time, I was fortunate to be part of teams winning seven premierships. I believe there is a valuable place for cross-code coaching in these sports. I made many lifelong friends and enjoyed sharing knowledge and skills from different sporting backgrounds, which is encouraged at many elite levels.
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