The Pacific Islanders was a combined international rugby union team that played from 2004 to 2008.

It represented Fiji, Samoa and Tonga; Niue and the Cook Islands also supplied players to the squad for their tour in 2004.

The team did not play at Rugby World Cups, where each of the nations continued to represent themselves.

The Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance (PIRA) was formed in 2003.

The coach is appointed by the Islanders board and in turn supported by the national coaches of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.

Its team, the Pacific Islanders, is drawn from the best Fijian, Tongan and Samoan players, and created great interest in their inaugural 2004 tour.

They lost every game, 29-14 v Australia, 41-26 v New Zealand and 38-24 v South Africa.

The Islanders did beat a Queensland XV 48-29 at Ballymore and NSW Waratahs 68-21 at Australia Stadium.

As the individual nations were primarily concerned with qualifying for the next World Cup the Islanders did not tour again until 2006.

Scheduled matches against Italy and New Zealand in June 2006 did not take place, but they undertook a Northern Hemisphere tour in late 2006 with matches against Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

PIRA had ruled in July 2006 that the team selected for that year's tour to Great Britain and Ireland would consist only of players who had previously played for Fiji, Manu Samoa or Tonga.

This was intended to ensure that the Pacific Islanders team serves to develop players for the island nations only.

Notably, two players on the 2004 tour, Sione Lauaki and Sitiveni Sivivatu (the latter the Islanders' leading scorer on that tour), went on to play for New Zealand.

[1] During that tour, they were the last opponents of Ireland at their traditional home of Lansdowne Road before its redevelopment into a modern all-seater stadium.

The Pacific Islanders were beaten in all three matches.

In November 2008, the team toured Europe and played Tests against England, France and Italy.

The team's manager was Major-General Sitiveni Rabuka, former Prime Minister of Fiji and author of two military coups in 1987.

[2] Though it began with two defeats, the tour ended with the Islanders' first ever win over European opposition, with a 25-17 victory in Italy.

[3] In July 2009, the Samoa Rugby Union informed fellow Alliance members Fiji and Tonga that it had decided to quit the alliance because the merged Pacific Island team had failed to produce financial benefits sought by member unions.

[4] The original concept was basically to provide an opportunity (to play) every two years.

There were two aims, to get revenue to help in the running of the activities of the unions (and) to provide players with the opportunity to play against tier one sides.

But the International Rugby Board changed the schedule for the Pacific Islands team to play every four years.

Every four years won't generate the revenue needed to run our rugby.There was speculation that the Islanders would be admitted into an expanded Super 12 competition or the Tri Nations Series, but instead the organisers of the Super 12 and the Tri Nations, SANZAR, opted to expand the Super 14 by adding one team each in Australia and South Africa and an extra round of fixtures to the Tri Nations without admitting any new teams.

French businessman Eric Series, owner of the Asia Pacific Dragons team,[5] proposed a Pacific Islands team for the 2016 Super Rugby season but was outbid by the Japan Rugby Football Union.

[6] In 2014, a match between the Pacific Islanders and the British & Irish Lions was proposed for the 2017 British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand,[7] but the match was never scheduled.

[8] Note: Flags indicate national union affiliation of the registered club.

Chris Latham Pacific Islanders: 15.

Sam Tuitupou Pacific Islanders: 15.

Gaffie du Toit Pacific Islanders: 15.

Brian Lima Union websites