Tuvalu at the Pacific Games similarly rotated on a four-year basis in the intervening years between the main games. A combined Gilbert and Ellice Islands team participated at the 1963, 1966, and 1971 South Pacific Games. An athlete from Tuvalu (then Ellice Islands), namely Nelu Arenga, is at least documented for 1971. Athletes from Tuvalu attended the 2003 South Pacific Games for the first time. Logona Esau was the first athlete from Tuvalu to win a medal at an international competition, when he took bronze at the 2005 South Pacific Mini Games in Koror, Palau. Tuvalu competed at the 2007 Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa.
Rugby union in the Marshall Islands population and geographical factors - their population is 61,963, and lives on 29 coral atolls and 5 isolated islands in the South Pacific Ocean. All of this makes a rugby infrastructure difficult to construct, and the islands are beset by rising sea levels. The geographic future of the Marshall Islands depends on the height of the ocean. No significant land is more than two metres above high water of ordinary tides. This means they are particularly vulnerable to any possible sea level rises caused by global warming. There is also a lack of land for specifically designated rugby pitches. Much