World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup: Difference between revisions

"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: 2014 IRB Pacific Nations Cup
Sport	Rugby union
Founded	2006 (as the Pacific 5 Nations)
No. of teams	6
Countries	Canada Fiji Japan Samoa Tonga United States
Most recent champion(s)	Japan (2014: 2nd 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 make 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 has been 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.

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 build up 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. 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." 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.

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
Australia A	—	2nd	2nd	—	—	—	—	—	—
Canada	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	2nd	3rd
Fiji	3rd	4th	4th	2nd	2nd	4th	2nd	1st	2nd
Japan	5th	6th	5th	4th	3rd	1st	4th	4th	1st
Junior All Blacks	1st	1st	—	1st	—	—	—	—	—
Māori	—	—	1st	—	—	—	—	—	—
Samoa	2nd	3rd	3rd	3rd	1st	3rd	1st	—	1st
Tonga	4th	5th	6th	5th	4th	2nd	3rd	3rd	3rd
United States	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	5th	2nd

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.

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	Junior All Blacks	4	4	0	0	167	47	(+) 120	4	20
2007	Junior All Blacks	5	5	0	0	228	34	(+) 194	5	25
2008	Māori	5	5	0	0	134	62	(+) 72	1	21
2009	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
	Samoa	2	1	1	0	36	31	(+) 5	0	6

All time

Pacific Nations (2006 – )
Nation	Games				Points			Bonus points	Table points	Champs
	played	won	drawn	lost	for	against	difference
Junior All Blacks	13	13	0	0	556	160	+369	12	64	3
Samoa	29	16	1	12	664	574	+90	12	78	3
Fiji	33	17	1	15	757	769	–12	19	89	1
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.

Top points scorers

Rank	Player	Team	Points
1	Kurt Morath	Tonga	139
2	Seremaia Bai	Fiji	106
3	Taniela Rawaqa	Fiji	103
4	James Arlidge	Japan	96
5	Pierre Hola	Tonga	75
6	Gavin Williams	Samoa	73
7	Ayumu Goromaru	Japan	64
	Clinton Schifcofske	Australia A
9	Stephen Donald	Junior All Blacks	59
10	Ryan Nicholas	Japan	54

Last updated: 23 June 2013
Source: irb.com

Top try scorers

Rank	Player	Team	Tries
1	David Lemi	Samoa	9
2	Hosea Gear	Junior All Blacks	8
	Takashi Kikutani	Japan
4	Vungakoto Lilo	Tonga	7
	Anthony Tuitavake	Junior All Blacks
	Lachlan Turner	Australia A
7	Timoci Nagusa	Fiji	6
8	Vereniki Goneva	Fiji	5
	Stephen Hoiles	Australia A
	Sione Lauaki	Junior All Blacks

Last updated: 23 June 2013
Source: irb.com

Venues

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

External links

• World Rugby tournament page