Vanuatu rugby league coach Lionel Harbin says today's Emerging Nations World Championship match against Hungary marks an opportunity to showcase how the game has developed in the islands.
It will be Vanuatu's first game since a test against Solomon Islands last October.
Harbin said the smaller nations normally didn't get a lot of opportunities to play at the international level.
"It's a pleasant opportunity to see how far we have come," he said.
"We have only been able to play one test a year and this is a great opportunity for not just us, Vanuatu, but all the countries to see how far they are developing and see what else they have to work on and keep developing as minnow nations in rugby league so I reckon it's a great concept. "
Harbin said he had been focussed on developing home-grown talent and the tournament, held in New South Wales, would be a great measuring stick.
"About 75 percent of our players are from Vanuatu, 25 percent are based here in Australia. We are quite unique in that way," he said.
"A lot of the other teams are playing with heritage based-players.
"We've said from the start we want to develop our own and that's what we are doing so this will give us a good reading of how far we've come."
Hungary opened their account with a two point win over Greece on Monday and Harbin said they showed that they will be tough opposition.
"You know that was a highly entertaining game, the Hungary and Greece game.
"Both teams put it all out there with some great tries and they're both big, physical sides so that is something we will have to combat," he said.
"But I believe we just have to do the things that we want to focus on and if we do that we will put ourselves in the game at the end."