As Samoa and Fiji face off at the Pacific Nations Cup, rugby bosses say they're trying to close the gap between the top playing nations and the Pacific. And a new generation of Pasifika are ready to take their place at the table.

We're in Fiji for the final game of the Pacific Nations Cup, Samoa v Fiji - and the stakes are high.

As we look to the future, there are encouraging noises from NZ Rugby's Bailey Mackey;

"It is becoming of us to really dig deep and support the re-emergence of our Pacific brothers and sisters. Because a stronger Pacific can only be better."

The final episode of the series grapples with the wider issues we've seen along the way: race and equity, power and money - and the way tension between them plays out in the wider rugby landscape.

Player's Union boss Rob Nichol says if they band together, Pasifika rugby nations have a card to play. But Dan Leo, from Pacific Rugby Players Welfare, says it will be a long game:

'We'll never be enough in our own right, we need the assistance of the public to get these outcomes."

World Rugby Chairman Sir Bill Beaumont seems to be on board:

"Our title is World Rugby. It's not, you know, the Top 10 Top, 12 countries. It's every country that's involved in the game. So it's incumbent on us to make certain that we do have a global game."

But is there the political will to make change?

Happily, a new generation of Pasifika has found their voices, like Moana Pasifika's Taylah Johnson:

"I'm 26. But it's taken this long to have a Pacific Super Rugby team. So I think that says a lot in itself. Now we have to deliver. It's up to us to really prove why we deserve to be here."

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Pasifika women just want to play the game they love but they're fighting for even fewer resources than their male counterparts. They're also battling to change traditional mindsets about women in rugby.

"I mean, we were already fighting for crumbs, we were fighting for the crumbs off the crumbs."

Samoan women's team manager, Tauanu'u Nick Bakulich, says resources are a constant issue:

It doesn't help that four years ago Tonga's Ministry of Education told girls they shouldn't be playing rugby because it went against their dignity and Tongan culture and traditions.

Sports Journalist, Talei Anderson tells us that while this decree was quickly overturned in the face of widespread public condemnation, it still leaves the question: what role do culture and traditions have when Pacific women play the game?

But Vela Naucukidi, Women's Development Officer for Fiji's Rugby Union, says change is coming slowly and some success has already arrived. She recalls the Fijiana's bronze medal winning effort at the 2021 Olympics:

"I broke down after the match when we were back at the village when my messenger was flooded with videos of males cheering for us. That was the turning point... To me that was the biggest achievement because it took me about 20 years to change mindsets."

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Fijian rugby is doing better than its island neighbours but within World Rugby vast disaparites still exist between playing nations.

Fijian rugby is in much better shape than their competitive cousins in Tonga and Samoa. Why is that?

Simon Raiwalui, former captain of the Flying Fijians and current head of Fiji's High Performance Program, holds some of the answers. With his deep knowledge of the European club rugby scene and World Rugby politics, he can see a positive future.

''If we get the same table laid out for us as every other nation, I think we can compete with any nation in the world. I believe that wholeheartedly.''

But inside World Rugby, vast disparities exist between the nations, as World Rugby council member for Oceania, Cathy Wong explains:

"You have some countries that have three votes, and some countries have one vote. Some countries have no vote.... When will that change? How will it change?"

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"We don't get the resources the big nations get." In Samoa even the school kids know the score. Has inequality become normalised?

''The big dream is for me is just this team fulfilling their potential that has been talked about for so many years.''

In Fiji for the Pacific Nations Cup, Vaovasamanaia Seilala Mapasua, head coach of Manu Samoa, says he wants to take his team on a journey:

But series host, James Nokise, gets emotional about the realities the team face:

'If it's 2022 and that's as good as a country like Samoa can expect, what are we doing?''

Back in Samoa, we hear from kids at a school tournament who know the score.

''We don't get the resources the big nations get, so we can prepare ourselves'''

But it's obvious this inequality has become so embedded in the system that it is now considered normal. Former Samoa captain and head of Pacific Rugby Players Welfare Dan Leo is determined to ask hard questions about the way Pacific players are seen:

''Where is that line drawn between opportunity and exploitation?''

There are stark choices to be made: as Kasiano Lealamanua, another of John's former teammates and now the only registered Pasifika player agent in New Zealand, puts it:

''Sometimes they have to choose between representing their country or not being paid. As PI people, a paycheck for us isn't just for us. You know, we're feeding not only a family, but we could be supporting multiple people in that village ...''

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Pasifika players have brought so much to the game of rugby - what have they got in return?

James Nokise remembers the glory days of the Samoan team from the 1990s as a kid wrapped in a rug watching his heroes on the TV.

Almost three decades after rugby turned professional, he sits down with the former All Black great, Sir Tuifa'asisina Bryan Williams.

As coach of Manu Samoa through the '90s and current patron of Moana Pasifika, the first professional team run by Pasifika for Pasifika, Sir Bryan understands the challenges Pacific players face.

''The powers that be decided there was no place for Pasifika in Super Rugby, which at the time for me and a number of others was absolutely galling - a great sense of disappointment, a great sense of grievance...''

One of the first Pasifika All Blacks, Sir Bryan went on to be President of New Zealand Rugby and he has a deep experience of how the system works:

''It's not a fair game now. Because it's obvious that certainly the island nations haven't got enough money.''

We also talk politics of rugby with World Rugby Chairman Sir Bill Beaumont and NZRPA chief Rob Nichol.

And Ikale Tahi centre, Fine Inisi and Professor Lisa Uperesa discuss the way the powerful protect their own interests in the sporting world and how that impacts players and the game.

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Tongan players talk about tough choices and a huge gap in resources between powerful rugby nations and the Pacific. And they ask: ''Is this structural racism?"

"It's racism, structural racism - the home unions know the threat, I think of our smaller unions getting too strong."

Pakilau Aotearoa Manase Lua, Tongan elder and member of NZ Rugby's Pacific Action Group, talks about the tough choices faced by players and the vast gap in resources between the powerful and the Pacific islands - and draws a troubling conclusion.

Former Tonga and Highlanders backrower and current Pacific Rugby Players head Hale T Pole tells us about how that gap led to some unconventional fundraising methods.

"We're all wearing undies, dye our hair, everything."

And the challenges he faces every day.

''Don't ever compare us, the Pacific Islands, to what other emerging nations have gone through. There's no comparison.''

Wallaby great and current Tonga coach Toutai Kefu discusses the impact of all these issues on the players' mindset.

John's former Lions teammate and ex-Tonga captain Inoke Afeaki likens the exodus of Tongan players to overseas clubs to a "slave trade' but the Tongan Prime Minister, Siaosi Sovaleni, argues that the problems with World Rugby are "being resolved".

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If you have a game where the rules favour one set of teams over another - is that game fair?

https://players.brightcove.net/6093072280001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6319903602112

"Is it a fair game? Good question."

It's a story about rugby and some of the best players the game has ever seen.

Pacific Islands rugby players are celebrated around the globe for their passion, flair and the physical commitment they bring to the game.

The Rugby World Cup in 2019 saw eleven out of the twenty teams fielding players of Pacific heritage - who made up more than 20% of the numbers taking the field at the competition.

But it's also about fairness

Despite their huge contribution to playing numbers, the three Pacific Island teams at the world cup - Tonga, Samoa and Fiji - all performed below their own expectations. The gap between them and the top tier is widening, while relative newcomers like Japan - bolstered by players of Pacific heritage - appear to have overtaken them.

These nations have less than 4% representation when it came to making the big decisions affecting their national teams.The reasons for this are complex but some of them are deeply disturbing. This isn't just about rugby:

It's about power and race and how a web of self-dealing and privilege appears to work against the people of three important nations in the South Pacific.

It's also about corruption, culture, and both the ties that bind and the tensions between the Pacific diaspora and their homelands.

Over six episodes "Fair Game: Pacific Rugby Against the World" will weave several threads together around the central quest to understand how the Pacific nations are consistently undermined:

There are the challenges faced by young players from the islands seeking to improve their opportunities in schools and professional outfits in New Zealand, Europe and Japan.

The podcast will also look at the successes and difficulties of former players who have trodden that path before them and their frustration with a system that feels rigged.

Then there are the issues around media and institutions like World Rugby and the national unions themselves.

Samoan/Welsh/New Zealand comedian James Nokise and journalists John Daniell and Talei Anderson talk to players, rugby bosses and sports writers across the pacific, from Auckland to Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.

They dig in to the history of Pacific Island rugby which has given so much to the game and got so little back.

They'll ask: If you have a game where the rules favour one set of teams over another - is that game fair?

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