SOUTH PACIFIC was the title of one of the great theatrical and movie musicals written by Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Some years ago I spent some time on the island of Tioman off the coast of Malaysia, where some of the filming was said to have taken place, although Tioman is actually in the South China Sea rather than the South Pacific.
The film, which came out in 1958, is excellent, although a little old-fashioned by today’s standards. Until recently whenever I heard any mention of the South Pacific I would immediately think of the musical numbers it contained.
Spending time on a tropical island that was linked to the film persuaded me to check out the musical, while it also aroused my curiosity about the nations of the South Pacific.
So you can imagine that I’m delighted with the growth of rugby league in many South Pacific nations and I admire the work the Australian Rugby League Commission has undertaken to establish the Pacific Cup and Pacific Bowl over the last two years.
It all started a little tentatively in 2023, although the climax was a startling 30-0 victory by New Zealand against Australia in a final that was played in the city of Hamilton.
But it really seems to have come to life in 2024 and that is largely down to the performances of Tonga, who defeated the Kiwis 25-24 in a thrilling clash in Auckland, with the Tongan fans forming a wall of red. And they all seemed to travel for the final against Australia at Parramatta’s CommBank Stadium, where they went down 20-14, while the Jillaroos defeated the Kiwi Ferns in the Women’s Pacific Cup Final.
The NRL has since posted some impressive figures that emphasised how well supported the tournament had been.
This year it delivered record-breaking attendance and viewership, with a total audience of 6.2 million across the men’s and women’s tournaments, marking a significant 40 per cent increase from 2023.
The Pacific Cup Final between Australia and Tonga drew over a million viewers, which was a 79 per cent increase on the 2023 decider between the Kangaroos and Kiwis.
The clash between New Zealand and Australia in Christchurch attracted 545,000 viewers on Channel 9’s coverage free to air and nearly a million views across all platforms, surpassing last year’s corresponding match by 22 per cent and exceeding both Bledisloe Cup rugby union fixtures earlier this year, which attracted 477,000 and 283,000 free-to-air viewers respectively.
The 28,728 crowd for the final at CommBank Stadium was the biggest attendance for a Test in Sydney since 2008.
The average TV viewership for men’s Pacific Bowl matches between PNG, Fiji and the Cook Islands rose by 35 per cent.
The Women’s Pacific Cup final between the Jillaroos and Kiwi Ferns attracting 353,000 viewers.
The opening fixture between the Jillaroos and PNG Orchids and the Pacific Cup Final also saw attendance figures of 18,486 and 17,503 respectively, meaning they were the two best attended Jillaroos matches on record.
The Jillaroos had an average TV viewership of 274,000 throughout the tournament, with 1.4 million people tuning in to watch the Women’s Pacific Championships.
The average viewership for the Women’s Pacific Bowl matches (between Samoa, the Cook Islands and Fiji) increased by 18 per cent from last year’s tournament, which gives some idea of the growing support of the women’s international game throughout the South Pacific region.
And last but not least for the Australians, more than 4,000 Kangaroos jerseys were sold during the Pacific Championships, although I’m certain that more Tongan jerseys would have been sold but that information doesn’t seem to be available.
It’s quite remarkable that rugby league now seems to have a real chance of becoming the major sport of the South Pacific islands and I hope that the ARLC is able to continue to strengthen the game there and not just in the islands that participated in the Pacific Cup this year.
In fact the Pacific Islands Forum comprises 18 countries and territories. Founded in 1971, it includes Australia, Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
Some of those countries are quite tiny but I believe that rugby league has a foothold in most of them, although it’s not easy to obtain verifiable information.
The Pacific Islands Rugby League Federation was formed by the governing bodies of rugby league in Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and the Cook Islands in December 2009 and is affiliated to the International Rugby League, the overall governing body for the world game.
I’m not sure what that body actually does but if it is active I hope it will expand to include some of the smaller nations.
But let’s finish with a return to South Pacific, the musical.
Mitzi Gaynor, who died in October this year at the age of 93, played the part of Ensign Nellie Forbush, a nurse from Arkansas who was serving thousands of miles away from home.
One of her songs was entitled ‘A Cockeyed Optimist’.
In it, she sang:
“I’m stuck like a dope
With a thing called hope,
And I can’t get it out of my heart!”
That’s how I feel about international rugby league generally.
If only we could emulate the Pacific Cup in the northern hemisphere!
But I won’t hold my breath.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 503 (December 2024)
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