The Pacific Test is expected to be moved to a stand-alone State of Origin weekend and City-Country scrapped when the NRL's new broadcast deal begins in 2018, while the eligibility rules for island nations are likely to be reviewed after the success of this weekend's representative round.
With the mid-season Anzac Test axed to enable a shorter 25-round competition in 2018, there were concerns at Pirtek Stadium after Saturday night's Samoa-Tonga and PNG-Fiji double-header about the future of the Pacific Test but Fairfax Media understands the fixture will shift to the stand alone weekend for the second State of Origin match.
Origin II will be played on a Sunday night so the NRL needs to provide content for its broadcast partners on that weekend and there is support to play the Pacific Test double-header on the Saturday night and possibly a New Zealand-England Test on the Friday night.
The NRL used Saturday night's double-header at Parramatta, which attracted a boisterous 15,225 crowd and was watched by a combined audience of 275,000 on Fox Sports, to announce a historic Test between Samoa and Fiji in Apia on October 8 and to show it is committed to growing the game in the Pacific.
However, City-Country appears destined for the scrapheap after the lack of support from clubs, with more than 60 players unavailable for Sunday's match at Tamworth. It is believed the money saved from the match would be better spent on taking more NRL matches to the bush.
There is also concern among the Pacific nations about whether clubs will block players from representing the countries of their heritage but ARLC chairman John Grant said on Saturday night he was confident Samoa and Fiji would have their stars available for the end-of-season Test at Apia Park.
The decision to play a Test in Samoa for the first time to mark the 30th anniversary of the game in the island nation has even created hopes that Brisbane five-eighth Anthony Milford would make himself available after he texted members of the Samoa camp immediately after the game and expressed his support for the team on social media.
It had previously been suggested that Brisbane and England coach Wayne Bennett had blocked Milford from playing in the Pacific Test to save him from having to declare he didn't want to play, but the belief in the Samoa camp is that the northern hemisphere nations are concerned about whether they can compete with full-strength Pacific nations.
"I've got no doubt that particularly Tonga and Samoa, if we can pick our best players we can compete," Samoa coach Matt Parish told Triple M. "Samoa showed that in the 2014 Four Nations and we didn't have Tony Milford then but I have no doubt if Tony had played the first two games [against England and New Zealand] we probably could have won them."
Parish, who revealed that Samoa players had been paid $650 to cover expenses for the week in camp in comparison to the $30,000 Origin players earn, said after the 18-6 defeat of Tonga that he had received a number of texts from Milford that showed how keen he was to again play for the country after starring at the 2013 World Cup.
However, Tonga coach Kristian Wolf said the current eligibility rules were the biggest obstacle for the Pacific nations, and he cited Andrew Fifita, Will Hopoate, Michael Jennings and Tui Lolohea as players who could have played on Saturday night and would have ensured an even greater spectacle.
"I get text messages all day and phone calls all week about blokes wanting to play," Wolf said. "There's plenty of blokes who'd love to be in camp. As a result of the rules, unfortunately they're not able to."
Under the RLIF eligibility rules, Fifita. Hopoate and Jennings would be ineligible to play State of Origin or for Australian if they had played for Tonga on Saturday night but they will be allowed to change their country of election for the 2017 World Cup if not selected by the Kangaroos.
However, many believe a player eligible for Australia, New Zealand or England who also qualifies for a developing nation on heritage grounds should be able to play for that country if not chosen by one of the big three and there is a push for the rules to change after the World Cup.
"If Australia and New Zealand don't pick them they should be able to go back to the other nations if they want an international showcase where it is more than three teams," Parish said.
