World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup

World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup
Sport	Rugby union
Founded	2006 (as Pacific 5 Nations)
No. of teams	3
Countries	Fiji; Samoa; Tonga
Most recent; champion(s)	Fiji (2017)
Most titles	Fiji (4 titles)

The Pacific Nations Cup is an international rugby union competition currently held between three Pacific nations: Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. First held in 2006, the tournament is intended to strengthen the Tier 2 rugby nations by providing competitive test matches in a tournament format.

Previously, Japan participated from 2006 to 2015, New Zealand from 2006 to 2009, Australia from 2007 to 2008, and Canada and the United States from 2013 to 2015. 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.

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]

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 would be joining the 2013 competition on a permanent basis. For the first time, the reigning champion Samoan team did not compete as they took part in a competition in South Africa.^[4]

The World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup was downscaled for 2016 and 2017 with these two editions featuring only Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. The sides from Canada, Japan and United States played in their respective regional qualifiers for the 2019 Rugby World Cup. As part of the Oceanian qualification, places at the 2019 Rugby World Cup were awarded to the two top teams of the 2016 and 2017 PNC (on aggregate), whereas the bottom team played a repechage match against the second best Rugby Europe Championship team.

Teams

The teams that participate in the World Pacific Nations Cup (former Pacific 5 Nations) and their finishing positions are as follows:

Team	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
Pacific
Fiji	3rd	4th	4th	2nd	2nd	4th	2nd	1st	2nd	1st	1st	1st
Samoa	2nd	3rd	3rd	3rd	1st	3rd	1st	—	1st^*	2nd	2nd	3rd
Tonga	4th	5th	6th	5th	4th	2nd	3rd	3rd	3rd	3rd	3rd	2nd
Japan	5th	6th	5th	4th	3rd	1st	4th	4th	1st^*	4th	—	—
Australasia
Australia A	—	2nd	2nd	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Junior All Blacks	1st	1st	—	1st	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
New Zealand Māori	—	—	1st	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
North America
Canada	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	2nd	3rd	6th	—	—
United States	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	5th	2nd	5th	—	—

Notes:

^ * The 2014 tournament was split into conferences without crossover matches or finals. Samoa and Japan won their respective conference titles.^[5]^[6]

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.^[7]

Results

Pacific Nations winners

Year	Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	BP	Pts
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	New Zealand 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^a	Japan	2	2	0	0	71	54	+17	1	9
2014^a	Samoa	2	1	1	0	36	31	+5	0	6
2015	Fiji	4	3	1	0	126	103	+23	2	16
2016	Fiji	2	2	0	0	49	34	+15	0	8
2017	Fiji	2	2	0	0	52	26	+26	0	9

All time summary

**Pacific Nations (2006 to 2016)**^b
Team	P	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Seasons	Runners-up	Champions
Fiji	39	22	2	15	932	906	+26	11	4	3
Manu Samoa	35	19	2	14	811	721	+90	11	3	3 ^a
Junior All Blacks	13	13	–	–	556	160	+396	3	0	3
Japan	37	12	–	25	743	1126	−383	10	0	2 ^a
New Zealand Māori	5	5	–	–	134	62	+72	1	0	1
Australia A	10	7	1	2	392	181	+211	2	2	0
Tonga	39	12	1	26	824	1136	−312	11	1	0
Canada	10	3	–	7	202	226	−24	3	1	0
United States	10	3	–	7	188	264	−76	3	1	0

Updated: 25 June 2016
Source: statbunker.com

Notes:

^a The 2014 tournament was split into conferences with Samoa and Japan winning their respective conference titles.^[5]^[6]

^b The totals cited from statbunker.com include classification finals from 2015 which were not regular season games. While their match data (P W D L PF PA PD) is accurate, the statbunker figures for bonus points and log points are unreliable and those stats are not included in the table above.

Top scorers

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

Top points scorers

Rank	Player	Team	Points
1	Kurt Morath	Tonga	188
2	Ayumu Goromaru	Japan	142
3	Seremaia Bai	Fiji	130
4	Taniela Rawaqa	Fiji	103
5	James Arlidge	Japan	102
6	Pierre Hola	Tonga	75
7	Gavin Williams	Samoa	73
8	James Pritchard	Canada	69
9	Clinton Schifcofske	Australia A	63
10	Stephen Donald	Junior All Blacks	59

Last updated: 25 June 2016
Source: statbunker.com

Top try scorers

Rank	Player	Team	Tries
1	Hosea Gear	Junior All Blacks	10
1	David Lemi	Samoa	10
3	Anthony Tuitavake	Junior All Blacks	9
4	Takashi Kikutani	Japan	7
	Hendrick Tui	Japan	7
	Lachlan Turner	Australia A	7
	Fetu'u Vainikolo	Tonga	7
8	Ryu Koliniasi Holani	Japan	6
	Vungakoto Lilo	Tonga	6
	Timoci Nagusa	Fiji	6
	Sonatane Takulau	Tonga	6