Scrum of the Earth /

New Zeland Maori and Australia A occupy the top two spots in the Pacific Nations Cup, highlighting the strength in depth of the southern hemisphere giants with World Cup veterans, Morgan Turinui, Piri Weepu and Mark Gerrard in their squads.

Australia A kicked off by scoring six tries against a stubborn Japanese side, including a brace for Peter Kimlin  while Mark Gerrard claimed a 17 point haul in the win. Captain Morgan Turinui has impressed and made it two tries in two as the strong second string Wallabies held out in wet and sticky conditions against a strong Samoan side in Apia.

Fiji missed out on a first victory over Maori since 1951 after Jason Eaton's second half try sealed an edgy victory over a plucky South Sea Islanders. Sireli Naqelevuki has sensational considering the dire conditions, but the Fijians class showed by trouncing Samoa with debutant Timoci Nagusa scored two tries.

NZ Maori outmuscled a Tongan tank, who are starring down the barrel of a winless tournament. Piri Weepu's late try ended any hopes of an upset, while Tonga were then stunned by Japan, who are clearly making giant strides under John Kirwan.

James Arlidge's boot and four excellent tries, including one each for Hirotoki Onozawa and Takashi Kikutani saw the Cherry Blossoms score their first victory of the tournament.

Former Wallaby great Glen Ella has enlisted his services with the Fiji Rugby Union as an adviser to elite players and coaches.

Instead of saying 'go and play for Australia, New Zealand or head to the northern hemisphere as fast as possible so you can earn some cash', Ella will be adivising them on how's best to keep fit before they play in second rate tournaments - Easy money by all accounts...

John O’Neill’s at it again with his revolutionary visions for rugby - this time he’s come up with another cracking proposal for the creation of an eight-team tournament involving the top Pacific, Asian, and American Test teams.
 
The intelligently named Pac-Rim Championship would involve Australia, Argentina, Japan, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, USA and Canada, with two pools of four, semi-finals and a final, all in the space of three weeks - all sounds a bit Twenty20 doesn’t it?

It would coincidentally run alongside the British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa and New Zealand hosting France and Italy, thus giving his beloved Wallabies a fighting chance to win a competition.

The tournament does have its advantages, giving top level practice for the likes of Fiji and Tonga that impressed at the World Cup, as well as giving an opportunity for unseen talents from Japan, Samoa and Canada to put themselves in the northern hemisphere shop window.

England may have missed a titanic tussle against the All-Blacks at the World Cup but they will get three opportunities to tackle the best in the business in 2008.

The autumn internationals will return to Twickenham with the southern hemisphere tripartite and a combined Pacific Islanders team descending upon London to round-off a tough calendar for Brian Ashton.