Last year, the Pacific Nations Cup was known as the Pacific Five Nations and involved Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Japan and the Junior All Blacks. Australia was invited to enter a team but declined, instead opting to focus on domestic competitions. This year Australia has entered their ‘A’ team and the tournament has been renamed the Pacific Nations Cup.

But what makes a tournament between four second-tier rugby nations and two second string teams special? It provides a place for top players in the Pacific to showcase their talents, get exposure and, most importantly of all, provide additional revenue for smaller unions.

Talent has never been much of an issue for Pacific Island nations, who have seen a number of their top players come to New Zealand and become fully professional players in Super Rugby. The problem has always been money.

Lacking the resources to develop much of their untapped potential, Samoa, Fiji and Tonga have seen many of their best players playing almost exclusively overseas. The lack of money has also meant that test matches against traditional rugby playing nations have been played away from home, although in recent years revenue sharing agreements have seen some gate money filter back into Pacific rugby.

The introduction of the Pacific Nations Cup in 2006 now has the Junior All Blacks and Australia ‘A’, packed with Super 14 players, playing games in Apia, Suva, Nuku’alofa and even Tokyo, providing the locals with top class rugby to watch. Young boys in Samoa, Fiji and Tonga can watch their team on the same field as the Super 14 players they see on TV. Stars such as Hurricanes and Samoan winger Lome Fa’atau will get the opportunity to play quality teams on their home soil.

The addition of the unpredictable and exciting Japanese team shows the IRB finally has a commitment to making rugby a global game. Rugby in Japan has never been lacking money, top players and coaches from New Zealand have often gone to play in Japan for big money contracts. Once again their problem has been a lack of quality opposition.

With the money and quality games barriers lifted from the Pacific Rim, it is now up to the rugby unions in the respective nations to make the most of this opportunity. There are already a number of Fijian, Samoan and Tongan Super 14 players, and perhaps with the added exposure it is only a matter of time before we see a Japanese Super 14 player.

Of course this competition is not just a chance for players. Coaches and even officials are also given a chance to shine. The game between Australia ‘A’ and Tonga was admirably controlled by a Japanese referee, and at least one touch judge in the game between Samoa and the Junior All Blacks was Samoan.

As with any competition trying to bring second-tier teams up to the first-tier there will be some thrashings. It is likely that over the next few years the Junior All Blacks and Australia ‘A’ will dominate the Pacific Nations Cup, but the experience gained by the other four teams will be invaluable and will hopefully lift them to the level where they can one day challenge the top nations.

Realistically, this year’s Rugby World Cup can only be won by a handful of teams. But given the improvement of team such as Argentina, who beat Ireland at the weekend, the gap between the traditional rugby powers and the newcomers is shrinking, which will lead to better competition and a more global game, and that can only be a good thing for rugby.