Plans are afoot for the Kiwis to play in a Pacific Nations championship, which will be played over a two- to four-year period.
The Rugby League International Federation (RLIF) is encouraging the likes of New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and Papua New Guinea to play regular tests against each other, with the results of these games going towards a championship.
A standalone State of Origin weekend from next year and the removal of the Anzac test from the fixture list has opened up a window in the calendar for the Kiwis to play other nations.
The Pacific nations have been playing one off tests against each other in Australia over the same weekend as the Anzac test for the past few years.
But RLIF CEO David Collier is pushing for a new competition to be set up, to give some meaning to tests played during this window and at the end of each NRL season.
"We've been discussing how to help, support and enhance an Asia/Pacific championship," Collier said.
"If you made sure people played each other over a period of two or three years, you could make that into a full championship.
"What this World Cup has shown is that those nations are more than capable of providing a strong spectacle for nations to visit or play against them.
"I'd hope that the number of international matches maintained.
"The Pacific tests have always been a spectacle and I've been lucky enough to go to a couple of them.
"If we can enhance it into a championship, it would be fantastic."
NZRL CEO Alex Hayton says they're interested in the idea, but not yet fully sold on it.
"Certainly in that standalone Origin weekend we're looking to play test matches and most probably against Pacific Island countries," Hayton said.
"If we're playing as part of that cycle we'd be involved in it, I'm not sure what it's going to look like and it's different to the old Pacific Cup, where it was played over two or three weeks.
"How you tie one-off games together over a four-year period is a bit tricky."
While this World Cup was a disaster from the Kiwis' point of view, it has highlighted there's big a big appetite for test footy in New Zealand when the Pacific nations are involved.
"Each nation has to work out its own numbers to make sure it works, but what this World Cup has done is shown to broadcasters that these are hugely attractive fixtures to go onto TV," Collier said.
"That certainly helps nations to promote those matches if there is interest from broadcasters."
Although the RLIF is the sport's international governing body, this new competition wouldn't be controlled by it. But it would become an important part of the test season, which is why it has been raised at a recent meeting.
"It was discussed as the whole calendar, as something Asia Pacific can look at," Collier said.
"It's very much up to Asia Pacific as to how they'd do that.
"I think it was talked about more as putting tests into more context, but to make sure the scheduling works, so everyone can play each other over a number of years."
The NZRL has confirmed the Kiwis will have a three-test tour of England at the end of next year, while Hayton says other tests for 2018 will soon be announced.
One of these is to be against the Kangaroos at the end of the season, likely to be in New Zealand.
"There's an appetite for the team to be home," Hayton said of the Kiwis.
"This World Cup has meant for the first time in three years the team has played at home and it's one of the things we've undertaken to work on, to have regular test matches at home going forward.
"Having the Kiwis at home on a regular basis will be important, for the Kiwis to connect with the country and there will obviously be games against Pacific islands during that Origin weekend, and at the end of the year a mix of old-fashioned tours and other events that will be announced in due course."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/leagu...fered-spot-in-new-pacific-league-championship
