Behind sugar, rugby players are the second biggest export from Fiji. Combined with Samoa and Tonga they provide almost 20% of the world’s professional rugby players. Fiji are Olympic champions in sevens and just won the HSBC World Sevens Series again. Pacific Island players regularly sweep up the end-of-year awards in all the top leagues for player of the season and nearly every top try-scorer in those leagues is from the Pacific. So it’s a no-brainer, right? Slap what’s left of your recently remortgaged mortgage on a Fiji v Samoa World Cup final on 2 November? Maybe don’t do that. Their actual fortunes in this World Cup will be very different.
The average difference in scoreline of Tier 2 teams v Tier 1 teams, as well as the margin of their biggest defeats, has been coming down every World Cup since 2003. That trend may well come to a grinding halt in Japan.
Related: Rugby World Cup 2019: Samoa team guide
Until Super Rugby gives a Pacific Island team a spot in their competition, cohesion is always going to be an issue.
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