A Pacific Islands All Star Team will face England in 2012 with England to do a tour of Australia and New Zealand.
With no international competitions having been planned for 2012, the year before the World Cup, this is seen as a way to expose England to some high quality opposition, give Pacific Islanders a game against better opposition, and yet at the same time not hurt anyone eligibility heading into the 2013 World Cup.
I look at this decision from two different points of view.
I think its great we will finally have a Pacific Islands All Star Team. Its something I’ve been talking about having for years.
I think this is a bit of a test by the ARL and NZRL. Not only will they watch to see of a Pacific Islands team would be a good addition to the Aboriginal All Stars concept, but they may also end up providing Australia and New Zealand with some decent opposition to play against.
You can be sure that both countries would love to be able to play a Tri Series with Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands playing one another.
From the English point of view, I don’t see anything in it for them really. This will be just another team that will beat up on them, and they could just play more games against Australia or New Zealand for that.
There is talk that it is trying to get old fashioned tours back up and running, but I don’t see the merit in that either. If they wanted that, it would be a Great Britain side touring and they would play club teams (A concept I believe has rightfully gone the way of the Dodo).
The international boards are desperate for England to provide some sort of opposition. I think they may be preempting what I believe will be a disastrous Four Nations competition at the end of 2011.
They need to be able to build up England in some way heading into the 2013 World Cup. Still, I don’t see how having them being belted by Australia, New Zealand and a Pacific Islands side will do that, but still, what else are they supposed to do with a terrible English side?
