International rugby league made a return to New Zealand and Australia on Saturday with the Kiwis and Tonga playing out a sold-out men's and women's double header in Auckland.

In Sydney, Papua New Guinea defeated Fiji and Samoa brushed aside the Cook Islands.

The stand-alone Sunday night match for State of Origin II has allowed the Pacific nations to enjoy a mid-season Test.

But as part of the NRL's new TV deal from 2023 onwards, the Origin game will return to Wednesday with the Test matches scrapped.

"I think Peter V'landys has done a wonderful job for the game but they've got this one wrong," Bennett told the ABC. "It's crazy stuff.

"It was sold out in New Zealand - a huge atmosphere - and it meant so much for those men to play for Papua New Guinea, Fiji, the Cook Islands and Samoa.

"All of a sudden we're going to pull the rug from underneath them? I don't know what we are going to do with it."

Bennett, who was due to act as an assistant coach with Tonga before withdrawing with illness, claimed the NRL was being short-sighted by dumping mid-season internationals.

The NRL wants to use October and November as the sole window for internationals but those games are likely to be impacted by player availability.

"Other codes don't have this, we're in competition with ourselves and other codes," Bennett said.

"Now we want to play with it. (You might ask) what does it (a Test weekend) achieve?

"Ask all those men who played what's the purpose. If players didn't want this they wouldn't have turned up in the quality they did.

"I can't get my head around why (the NRL is scrapping it)."

Australian Associated Press