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Last Saturday, Seru Rabeni, the Fijian at Leicester, was by such a distance the richest talent on the field at the Cardiff-Leicester game that comparisons were almost embarrassing.

In the week ahead he arrives with his Pacific Island colleagues to prepare for their tour and their match against England at Twickenham. In his party, to name just a few, will be Census Johnston, the giant Samoan Saracen who can scrum and play rugby, the wondrous Nili Latu, who led Tonga with such awesome energy and brilliance at the World Cup, and Sisa Koyamaibole, the talented Fijian No 8.

Naturally, they will be cruelly under-prepared. No-one did a deal to grant their coaches extra time with their players, they have three fiery nations as their differing component parts and in terms of development of tier two nations, a fired-up Fiji, Tonga or Samoa, if allowed to select from all their players and prepare properly, have proved that they can compete and might have been a better idea.

It will be fun watching them play but far more important to see how they blend and how they are treated by the host nations coining it in massively from the match while their own rugby nations remain impoverished. Are they a brilliant idea, or just an excuse for another big revenue stream for the European unions? Let’s see …

Cowardly South Africa

South Africa is a wonderful country and a wonderful rugby nation and the average Springbok fan has never been backward in coming forward to tell you how marvellous their team is.

It is therefore incredible how muted the voice of South African rugby is on the world stage. When was the last time we heard a South African rugby administrator prognosticating on anything of global significance or anything bar the problem of cleaning up the mess in his own backyard?

When was the last time that South Africa took a lead or brought a fresh idea to the rugby party? Indeed, when was the last time they allowed themselves an independent thought that did not represent the express wishes or even orders of their two Sanzar partners, New Zealand and Australia, who clearly expect South Africa to vote with them on every big issue even though in terms of culture and rugby imperatives, it is a totally different place? “We tend to drift along and do what they say,” as one of South Africa’s best rugby writers wrote to me recently.

They do. Last week, South Africa, after expressing opposition to many of the laws experiments, largely but not exclusively in private, lamely went along with the incredible Sanzar decision to extend the trial of the dreaded “sanctions” ELVs, which give the game a breathless, deathless, tap-and-go structure, and provide a cheats’ charter that puts the whole onus of the breakdown phases totally at the individual whim of a referee.

What a shame that a great rugby nation lacked the courage to stand up for itself.

Hartley: time to deliver