RUGBY League International Federation chairman Nigel Wood has foreshadowed the return of the Pacific Cup in the wake of outstanding performances by Oceania countries at the World Cup.
Speaking in League Express today, Wood says it would be ideal for Pacific nations such as World Cup semi-finalists Tonga and Fiji to be able to compete for a trophy rather than play in one-off mid-season internationals.
“I’d settle for them just playing at the moment,” Wood said in an extensive Q&A.
“What would be great for them is having some sort of ‘trophy lift’ – rather than just a one-off Pacific Test.
“It’d be great to have them playing a competition of some sort. Similar to our European Championship, perhaps.
“That’s something for the RLIF to look to.”
The Pacific Cup was previously held between 1974 and 2009. A total of 18 nations competed in that time.
Discussing New York’s bid for League One inclusion in 2019, Wood – in his capacity as RFL CEO – said: “There’s a bit of work to be done in the first quarter of 2018.
“Subject to that, then there’s some due diligence and some investigating to be done.
“Everyone’s fascinated by New York, though, so we’ll look at it then, report to the RFL board in March and then we’ll decide whether it’s credible enough to present to the clubs after that.”
Wood also explained the decision to excuse Toulouse from the Challenge Cup.
“They asked to be stood out of it,” he said.
“They’ve got some particular issues with their ground and things like that so they asked for an exemption, which we were eventually persuaded to grant.
“It raised an issue for us and it might not happen again but on this occasion we decided to accept their request.
“If you’re a member of the RFL, you have to play in the Challenge Cup. But Toulouse are not a member club. They are playing as an invited guest of the competition, much like Toronto and Catalans.
“They’re members of their own sovereign organisations.”
Wood described his being voted off the board of Super League as “nothing of great significance”.
He declined to say whether he was interested in the soon-to-be-vacated RLIF CEO’s post.
