Super Rugby franchise in Pacific Islands will transform Fiji - John McKee

Fiji head coach John McKee believes an introduction of a Super Rugby franchise in the Pacific Islands will help his side transform into a dominant force.

There are plans to form a Super Rugby franchise from Fiji, Samoa and Tonga combined and is expected to be operational from early 2020's with a hope to prevent players from Pacific Islands getting lured to overseas clubs on financial grounds.

Players like Nathan Hughes and Semesa Rokoduguni have moved to England and now are set to feature for the red rose team against the nation of their birth on Saturday at Twickenham.

Citing the example of Argentina's resurgence, McKee believes a Super Rugby franchise in the Pacific Islands can do a world of good to Fiji.

"It costs a lot of money to run a Super Rugby franchise and the economies in the Pacific are small economies, but it could become a reality in the next five to six years," McKee said.

"I certainly feel that the groundswell has changed a little bit and we're realistically moving towards that now.

"From a national coaching perspective, to have our players playing in Super Rugby would be hugely beneficial for the national team because the windows fit in with the Test match windows.

"We would have access to a fair number of our squad at home over the whole 12 months. We would still select players from Europe, but the core of our team would be at home.

"With the talented athletes we have, if we had a Super Rugby team, we would be right up there.

"If you look at Argentina, they have improved since joining Super Rugby. They found it a bit tough with all the travel, but it's enabled them to have the core of their players at home for the majority of the year.

"You can see how Argentina's style has changed - they are a much more dangerous team now and had a very successful World Cup, playing very un-Argentinean style rugby. That has come from playing Super Rugby."

Fiji skipper Akapusi Qera echoed McKee's views and urged the World Rugby to invest in the project which will help his team compete with the tier one teams better.

"Having Super Rugby would bring professionalism to the islands and it would raise question marks on whether to come to Europe or not. If it happened, most of the boys would tend to stay rather than moving on," Qera said.

"If World Rugby wants the tier two nations to compete with the tier one nations, then they have to look into this investment in order to level the playing field."