Organisers of a newly formed Pacific Island rugby team said Thursday they expected to announce matches against Australia, South Africa and New Zealand in the next week.

"The response we have had from the Sanzar unions has been tremendously encouraging," said Bob Challenor, chief executive of the Fiji Rugby Union (FRU), which has formed the new multi-national side with Tonga and Samoa. The three nations are to pick one team to play major sides, but the itinerary would have to fit in scheduled individual Tests and qualifying matches for the 2003 Rugby World Cup.

"The key is organising the schedule," said Challenor after the island nations agreed to give priority to the combined side.

"There are only a limited number of windows for our players and we also have other playing commitments as well."

None of the fixtures have been confirmed at present, but Challenor said there were concrete offers to showcase the combined side called Pacific Islanders.

Key to the commitments is juggling an England tour through the Pacific Islands and also the 2002 Pacific Tri-Nations series between Tonga, Samoa and Fiji.

A two-day meeting in Auckland this week to set up the new rugby organisation agreed to play as short a Tri-Nations series as possible to maximise the opportunities for the Pacific Islanders, but Challenor said that may not be possible.

"It now seems as if the 2002 (Pacific Tri-Nations) competition will be the Rugby World Cup qualifying process and this may mean we are instructed by the IRB to play the matches on a home and away basis," Challenor said.

"To be honest, if the island nations have to play six matches instead of three and host the England tour as well, our room for matches against all of the Sanzar unions for the Pacific Islanders is limited."

England have yet to confirm whether they can play an additional match against the Pacific Islanders due to contractual commitments of their leading players.

"One of the major issues England have is the logistics of their tour to the South Pacific. We will be working with the Fiji Visitors Bureau and Tourism Action Group to develop a proposal that will see the (England) team based in Fiji, if possible. They can commute to Tonga and Samoa for their games," Challenor said.

"Having a 50-man England team in Fiji for the best part of three weeks could be of huge value to the Fiji tourism structure and Fiji need to do our very best to make this as easy as possible for England." - Sapa-AFP