The Tonga Rugby League is campaigning to host a Pacific Cup match for the first time in history.

The small Polynesian kingdom of 103,000 residents has never hosted an official league Test match against its Pacific Cup neighbours and is hoping to stage a fixture against either Aotearoa / New Zealand or Australia in either 2025 or 2026.

Only Australia, Aotearoa / New Zealand and Papua New Guinea are set, at this stage, to host internationals during the annual end-of-season regional tournament

The Tongans have recently played their home Test matches in Auckland to financially capitalise on a large Polynesian diaspora based largely around the city's southern suburbs amid a number of sellout matches, including an upset win over Australia in 2019.

Tonga, two years earlier, caused its first boilover in a rugby league Test against a tier-one nation - and host - Aotearoa / New Zealand, where Tongan fans clearly outnumbered their Kiwi counterparts at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland.

But Tonga Rugby League president Lord Fakafanua has admitted it is time that Tonga brings a Test back to the nation's capital Nuku'alofa.

"A home game would be amazing if it happens," he told Radio New Zealand..

The Australian government allocated $250 million for a Pacific rugby league partnership back in 2018 – separate from cash set aside to support the formation of a Papua New Guinean side's NRL entry in 2028 – to strengthen grassroots participation and create an elite pathway system for players in Fiji, Samoa and Tonga towards building an academy.

The Tonga Rugby League maintains that playing a Pacific Cup match in Tonga while interest in the code is at its highest ever will further generate interest that can only expedite development programs.

Tonga's greatest hour, the 16-12 victory against Australia in front of fanatical support in Auckland, resulted in 40,000 locals – nearly half of the nation – lining the main streets of Nuku'alofa to welcome the team back to the island.

Tonga Rugby League meanwhile has been holding discussions with other Pacific nations' rugby league boards and were given a set of requirements to fulfill first.

The Teufaiva Sport Stadium that was struck by Cyclone Gita back in 2018 has been repaired in recent years and is somewhat upgraded to hold more than 10,000 spectators, regularly hosting an annual Moana Pasifika Super Rugby Pacific fixture in addition to all of Tonga's home rugby union Test matches.

"We have been and are just working on the requirements," Tonga Rugby League board member Viliami Takau said in a statement.

"We started talking about it after the (Pacific Cup) competition last year and raised it with the Australian delegation that came over last month.

"Hopefully, we are able to tick all the boxes."

But one of the biggest hurdles for the Teufaiva Sport Stadium to host the match is the unavailability to play matches at night amid the warmest time of the year towards the end of the year.

Plans to bring in floodlights have come to fruition yet while a Moana Pasifika Super Rugby match was cancelled in March under promised playing conditions of a night fixture.

Another requirement would be maintaining a minimum standard of medical services to host an international match that ensure player injuries are properly managed.