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And Tabua urged Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to strengthen ties at all levels with Fiji, Tonga and Samoa to aid their development.

The International Rugby Board recently introduced the Pacific Nations Cup, which includes Australia A and the Junior All Blacks, but Tabua feels more needs to be done.

"It is very important Australia, New Zealand South Africa do have more games with the Pacific Islands rather than having to only meet them here at the World Cup," said Tabua.

"It is only then that we can gauge our development and more games, not only at national team level but age groups as well, would see us develop and be more competitive.

"We do need Super 14 teams. The island nations need to be in that competition so we can develop more of our players. Two thirds of our players are here in Europe. We need to develop more by having a team in the Super 14."

The Pacific nations have improved in the four years since the last World Cup, as Tonga showed by pushing South Africa right to the brink on Saturday.

Fiji now head to Nantes for a winner-takes-all showdown with Wales for a place in the quarter-finals.

Tabua said: "It will be tough. We have to beat Wales to be in the quarters, which is our goal.

"Next week we will be more more controlled. We gave away a lot of penalties in the line-out and in the scrum which cost us yesterday when we got into Australian territory."

Fiji made 11 changes for yesterday's game and proved tough to break down in the opening stages.

But their game was riddled with errors and Australia never really needed to get out of second gear as they cruised to a 55-12 victory.

SportingLife / Eurosport