Rugby Shorts

How many times are we going to hear the same tired story from New Zealand and Australia in both rugby codes? Samoa's rugby league coach John Ackland is the latest in a string of high profile coaches to step up and ask the rugby elite not to turn a blind eye to the state of island footy. Read his comments here.

Now their talking about creating a Quad-Nations tournament involving Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea and Tonga in 2010. That's all fine except our teams will still be excluded from playing top level competition because Australia and New Zealand will still be involved in the Tri-Nations between England. Another brilliant idea to keep the poor from feeding at the table of the rich.

Meanwhile, Fiji is the only pacific nation left in the Rugby League World Cup. Joe Rabele's boys will face the might of Australia in the semi-finals and although the Fijian's are expected to crumble under the Aussie pressure, you can rest assured that Fiji will throw everything that have at Australia from the opening whistle until full-time. GOOD LUCK FIJI!

New Zealand played to a 32-22 victory over England in the other Semi-Final to setup what will most likely be a decider between the Kiwis and the Aussies.

In Union news, the Pacific Islanders fell hard once again, this time in a 42-17 spanking at the hands of the French. and the All Blacks are getting set for a friendly on November 18, against Munster in the Zurich Challenge, which fields three former NZ internationals in Lefeimi Mafi, Doug Howlett and Rua Tipoki.