World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup

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"5 Nations" redirects here. For the European rugby competition formerly known as the 5 Nations, see Six Nations Championship.
World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2015 World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup
Sport Rugby union
Founded 2006 (as Pacific 5 Nations)
No. of teams 6
Countries  Canada
 Fiji
 Japan
 Samoa
 Tonga
 United States
Most recent champion(s)  Fiji (2015: 3rd title)

The Pacific Nations Cup is an international rugby union competition held between six Pacific Rim nations: Fiji, Japan, Samoa, Tonga, Canada and the United States. The tournament is intended to strengthen the Tier 2 rugby nations by providing competitive test matches in a tournament format.

The United States and Canada made their tournament debuts in 2013. Previously, New Zealand participated from 2006–2009, and Australia participated from 2007–2008. The inaugural tournament was the only one that carried the title of IRB Pacific 5 Nations; from 2007 the competition was known as the IRB Pacific Nations Cup.

Japan v Australia A, Level-5 stadium, 2008 IRB Pacific Nations Cup

Format

The tournament is a round-robin, where each team plays one match against each of the other teams. There are four points for a win, two points for a draw and none for a defeat. There are also bonus points offered with one bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match and one bonus point for losing by 7 points or fewer.

The tournament generally occurs every year in the June mid-year international test window. The tournament was played mainly throughout June, with the last round in early July. The revised tournament begins in May due to pre-existing Test commitments and concludes in late June.

History

The Pacific Nations Cup was funded as an International Rugby Board (IRB) tournament which was part of the $US50 million, three-year, global strategic investment programme launched in August 2005. The competition was aimed at developing the Pacific rim sides in the second tier of the rugby nations: Fiji, Japan, Samoa and Tonga. The Junior All Blacks were also invited to compete, who are New Zealand's second XV. "The IRB Pacific 5 Nations is a tournament that will provide more certainty for Fiji, Japan, Samoa and Tonga in terms of regular high level Test match rugby, while also providing a high level of competition for the Junior All Blacks," said Mark Egan, the IRB's Head of Rugby Services.[1]

Japan playing Tonga at Honjo stadium, 2006 IRB Pacific 5 Nations.

In the first year only it was called the IRB Pacific Five Nations and did not include Australia. Australia had been invited to take part in the inaugural 2006 tournament but decided against sending a team stating that they wanted to focus on their domestic competition. The inaugural tournament kicked-off 3 June 2006 and was played in a round-robin format, with some games being held in Australia. The Junior All Blacks won all of their matches en route to winning the 2006 tournament. The inaugural tournament was a success in providing a platform for Pacific nations and Japan in gaining valuable exposure.

Australia A joined an expanded competition for the 2007 season. The inclusion of Australia A meant that the tier 2 nations would have an even greater number of matches in the buildup to the 2007 Rugby World Cup. For Australia, it provided a stepping stone for Wallaby selection. Following the 2008 tournament, however, the ARU announced Australia A would not play in 2009 due to the current economic environment.[2] Australia has not participated since then.

In 2008, the New Zealand Māori team replaced the Junior All Blacks in the competition. The New Zealand Rugby Union had decided that the New Zealand Māori needed to play more matches at home and that the Junior All Blacks would not be assembled in 2008 for reasons of "player welfare."[3] The Junior All Blacks returned for the 2009 tournament, but no New Zealand team has participated since then.

From 2010 to 2012, the Pacific Nations Cup was a four-team tournament, contested by Japan, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, with Samoa winning in 2010 and 2012.

In January 2013, the IRB announced that both the USA and Canadian rugby teams will be joining the 2013 competition on a permanent basis. For the first time, the reigning champion Samoan team will not be competing as they will be taking part in a competition in South Africa.[4]

Teams

The teams that participated in the IRB Pacific Nations Cup (and Pacific 5 Nations) and their finishing positions are as follows:

Team 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
 Australia A N/A 2nd 2nd N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
 Canada N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 2nd 3rd 6th
 Fiji 3rd 4th 4th 2nd 2nd 4th 2nd 1st 1st 1st
 Japan 5th 6th 5th 4th 3rd 1st 4th 4th 1st 4th
New Zealand Junior All Blacks 1st 1st N/A 1st N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
 Māori N/A N/A 1st N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
 Samoa 2nd 3rd 3rd 3rd 1st 3rd 1st N/A 2nd 2nd
 Tonga 4th 5th 6th 5th 4th 2nd 3rd 3rd 3rd 3rd
 United States N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 5th 2nd 5th

Commercial sponsorship

On 20 June 2008 the International Rugby Board announced that regional financial institution ANZ had agreed to become presenting sponsor of the competition, as well as the FORU Oceania Cup and the Pacific Rugby Cup.[5]

Results

Pacific Nations winners

Year Winner Games
played		 Games
won		 Games
drawn		 Games
lost		 Points
for		 Points
against		 Points
difference		 Bonus
points		 Table
points
2006 New Zealand Junior All Blacks 4 4 0 0 167 47 (+) 120 4 20
2007 New Zealand Junior All Blacks 5 5 0 0 228 34 (+) 194 5 25
2008  Māori 5 5 0 0 134 62 (+) 72 1 21
2009 New Zealand Junior All Blacks 4 4 0 0 161 79 (+) 82 3 19
2010  Samoa 3 2 0 1 78 63 (+) 15 1 9
2011  Japan 3 2 0 1 67 74 (–) 7 2 10
2012  Samoa 3 3 0 0 76 70 (+) 6 0 12
2013  Fiji 4 3 0 1 109 59 (+) 50 4 16
2014  Japan 2 2 0 0 71 54 (+) 17 1 9
 Fiji 2 1 0 1 58 35 (+) 23 2 6
2015  Fiji 4 3 1 0 126 103 (+) 23 2 16

All time

[citation needed]

Pacific Nations (2006 – )
Nation Games Points Bonus
points		 Table
points		 Champs
played won drawn lost for against difference
New Zealand Junior All Blacks 13 13 0 0 556 160 +369 12 64 3
 Fiji 33 17 1 15 757 769 −12 19 89 2
 Samoa 29 16 1 12 664 574 +90 12 78 2
 Japan 33 11 0 22 663 1039 −376 13 57 2
 Māori 5 5 0 0 134 62 +72 1 21 1
 Tonga 33 9 1 23 682 986 −304 11 52 0
 Australia A 10 7 1 2 392 181 +211 6 36 0
 Canada 6 3 0 2 145 142 +3 3 15 0
 United States 6 1 0 5 115 179 −64 2 7 0

Updated: 22 June 2014
Source: irb.com

Top scorers

The following sections contain points and tries which have been scored in the Pacific Nations Cup.

Venues

Below is a table listing all the venues that have been used in the tournaments, listed with the number of matches each venue has hosted annually and historically:

Table updated to 2015 tournament

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ http://livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/12/18/Australia_A_dumped_from_Pacific_Nations_Cup
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ http://tvnz.co.nz/rugby-news/pacific-nations-cup-expanded-canada-and-usa-5324452
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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