World Rugby

Fiji will play Tonga and Samoa face a New Zealand Heartland XV at Eden Park two years after the initial Pasifika Challenge saw Samoa take on New Zealand and Tonga play Wales at the same venue in 2017.

Ahead of this latest New Zealand celebration of Islands rugby, World Rugby has highlighted how it partnered with the three unions in a four-year high-performance support programme where direct and indirect support from the game’s governing global body is expected to reach £20 million from 2016-19.

Deans, a halfback who played 10 tests between 1987 and 1989, is understood to have lost his battle with cancer on late Thursday.

A tough halfback who represented Canterbury during its famous Ranfurly Shield reign between 1982-85, Deans was respected for his uncompromising attitude and work-rate around the field.

Although a member of the All Blacks squad that won the inaugural World Cup tournament that was held in New Zealand and Australia in 1987, Deans was unable to get a start ahead of captain David Kirk in any games.

England ended Grand Slam winners Wales' run of 14 consecutive victories with a 33-19 triumph at Twickenham on Sunday.

Tries from Billy Vunipola, Joe Cokanasiga and Luke Cowan-Dickie and a perfect kicking display from stand-in captain George Ford prevented a strong Wales side from replacing New Zealand at the top of the rankings.

It was events in Perth a day earlier that Jones was more keen to discuss, taking aim at the governing body for Jerome Garces' dismissal of All Black Barrett.

The six law trials follow a comprehensive evaluation by the expert Law Review Group which concluded that 50 percent of injuries and 76 percent of concussions occurred in tackles.

Depending on the success of the trials some of the new rules could be in place by the 2023 World Cup.

One of the closed trials will be to reduce tackle height to the waist in a bid to reduce head injuries.

The others are

Dan Carter: A Perfect 10 promises to show a side of former All Black Dan Carter, which has "never been seen before."

The new all-access doco, which releases this month also reveals the highs and lows of success, with Carter's wife, Honor revealing "the fame has been quite hard."

The film tracks Dan Carter's career and journey from rural New Zealand to becoming what some say is the greatest number 10 of all time, and has Carter saying "I don't want this feeling to ever end."

The squad received a €54,000 donation from the Samoan public; funds raised in a 10-hour telethon.

Samoa beat Germany in a two-leg playoff to qualify for the World Cup finals.

Steve Jackson is a former New Zealand Maori representative and played for Tasman, Auckland, North Harbour and Southland, where he was captain.

He was assistant coach at Tasman and Counties-Manukau before securing his first head coaching role at North Harbour, leading them to the Championship win which saw them promoted to the Premiership.

Manu Samoa beat Tonga 25-17 on Saturday afternoon in wet and muddy ground conditions, which raised questions from players about the decision-making and player safety processes prior to the match.

Pacific Rugby Players' Association CEO Aayden Clarke said players from both teams were briefed about the weather conditions during a training camp in Auckland earlier this month, while officials from World Rugby raised the prospect of playing the game offshore, with no other grounds in Samoa meeting international standard.

The global governing body has come under fire from some quarters after Samoa’s win over Tonga was played in dire weather conditions, with water pooling in some sections of t

Tonga centre Cooper Vuna and second row Sam Lousi have both taken to social media since the game to express their frustrations at what became something of a mudbath.

“Shoutout to World Rugby for signing off the field for us to play on today,” wrote Lousi, who has signed for Pro14 side Scarlets ahead of the new season, on Twitter.

Rugby union chiefs wanted to launch a new cross-hemisphere Nations Championship from 2022, in which the first and second-placed sides of Europe's Six Nations would face off against the two countries at top of an expanded, six-team southern hemisphere Rugby Championship in end of year semi-finals and subsequent final.

The proposals were backed by a record commercial partnership worth nearly £5 billion ($6.6 billion) of investment.

With a new governance model paving the way for wider representation on World Rugby’s Council, Fiji and Samoa were warmly welcomed by council, which now comprises 51 members.

Having successfully achieved the required good governance criteria in line with governance reform launched in November 2015, the unions follow Georgia, Romania and USA onto the expanded council and will act as an inspiration for other unions aspiring to take a seat on council.