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Tonga and Fiji were both eliminated in the poolrounds of the Rugby World Cup, but the teams returned to vastly differingreceptions in their Pacific island homelands.

Tonga pulled off one of the biggest wins in its history when it beat Francein its last pool match and lifted its world ranking from an all-time low of 15thwhen the tournament began to an all-time high of 10th.

The teams homecoming on Monday almost closed down the Tongan capital ofNukualofa as fans left schools and workplaces to clog the route between theairport and downtown. The trip, which usually takes 30 minutes, took more thanthree hours.

The Fijians returned to headlines proclaiming the darkest day in thenations rugby history and to calls for heads to roll for over its World Cupfailure.

Under a one-word headline Shameful, the Fiji Times newspaper said Fijisstanding in world rugby had disintegrated after its 66-0 loss to Wales in itslast pool game, its worst-ever Rugby World Cup defeat.

The widely read Fiji Village website said tough decisions will be madewhen the board of the Fiji Rugby Union meets in Suva on Thursday. The websitesaid several of the coaching staff involved in Fijis Cup campaign, includinghead coach Sam Domoni, may lose their jobs as questions continue to be askedabout the teams poor performance.

Rugby is a central part of Fijis national culture and the poor performancein New Zealand of the so-called Flying Fijians has plunged the island nationinto gloom. New Zealand commentators on Fijis volatile political scene haveeven said the teams failure may jeopardize the hold on power of militarystrongman Commodore Frank Bainimarama.

Bainimaramas government was seen to have had a strong influence overelections earlier this year which installed a new Fiji Rugby Union board, headedby Colonel Mosese Tikoitoga, the chief of the nations land forces.

Tikoitonga was among a handful of officials and relatives who greeted theFiji team at Nadi airport. He said the FRU board would conduct a thoroughreview.

Now that weve seen the result of preparations its time for the board tosit down and have a look at all the preparation that was done, how sevens hasplayed a part in preparing players for 15-a-side, the number of matches wevehad and all the reports of the past CEOs and coaches and see where we go fromhere, Tikoitoga told the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation.

Things that have been done by FRU, where weve gone wrong and how we canbetter the result for our future games. That is one of the major tasks for theboard, to map out a change of strategy and how we can prepare our team forfuture World Cups.

We owe it to the boys for playing for Fiji. Rugby is bigger than all of usand needs to be seen as a national issue and not something that belongs to anindividual sport.

Despite strong censorship imposed by Bainimaramas military regime, whichseized power in a 2006 coup, questions are being openly asked in the Fiji mediaabout the boards stewardship of Fiji rugby.

The Fijian despair contrasts with the rapturous welcome accorded to theTongan team that arrived in Nukualofa, led by brothers Isitolo Maka, the coach,and Finau Maka, the captain.

Traffic jammed Tongatapus main roads and the island came to a standstillas crowds turned out to greet the national rugby team, the Ikale Tahi,MatangiTonga reported.

The bus carrying the players and management had to be escorted by policeofficers, some walking beside the bus all the way from the airport to keep theexcited fans from overwhelming the returning players.

In Tongatapu the population had, it seemed, self-proclaimed Oct. 3 as anational holiday and although offices and schools were open they emptied whenalmost everyone went out to the streets.