Years of fierce rivalry have been put aside with Fiji, Samoa and Tonga agreeing to form a combined side to tour leading nations from next year.

"Everybody came to the meeting (in Wellington) with a very positive attitude and we have made tremendous progress,' acting chief executive of the Fijian Rugby Union Bob Challenor.

"Key in achieving this has been a good schedule of matches."

Under the International Rugby Board (IRB) touring schedule, Fiji was due to host the All Blacks next year, South Africa owed a match to Samoa, and Tonga was due to host Australia.

"The principle agreed at the meeting that these matches should be given to the Pacific Islanders," Challenor said.

Given the time constraints in the Sanzar schedule, Challenor said it was likely the combined team would have to accept playing the fixtures in Australia and New Zealand to overcome the tight July-August Test programme in the southern hemisphere.

"That is clearly no problem for us and we hope no problem for Sanzar," Challenor said.

The meeting included an extensive review of the corporate structure of the new British Lions Limited company in which the four Home Unions are equal stakeholders.

It was agreed the islanders would model its set-up on the Lions, with a coach - to be appointed by an islanders' board - who was supported by the national coaches of the individual unions.

"The meeting agreed the key to making this a success was not quotas (of players from each union) but picking a team that was going to play the best attacking rugby in the world and at least give a damn good game if not actually pick up a few scalps," Challenor said.

The three unions will meet with the representatives from the English rugby union in Auckland tomorrow to discuss arrangements for the England tour of the South Pacific next year.

A request for an extra match from England was also added to the agenda.

"We would like to be able to get England's agreement to play an additional match in New Zealand against the Pacific Islanders as the first test match for this new team," Challenor said.

"The RFU (Rugby Football Union) is the home of rugby as far as we in the Pacific are concerned and it would be a wonderful omen for the islanders if we could have this blessed by the country that gave us rugby in the first place."