| 1997 Fiji rugby union tour of New Zealand | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summary |
| ||||
| Total |
| ||||
| Test match |
| ||||
| Opponent |
| ||||
 New Zealand |
| ||||
The 1997 Fiji rugby union tour of New Zealand was a series of matches played in May and June 1997 in New Zealand by Fiji national rugby union team.
| 1997 Fiji rugby union tour of New Zealand | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summary |
| ||||
| Total |
| ||||
| Test match |
| ||||
| Opponent |
| ||||
| New Zealand |
| ||||
The 1997 Fiji rugby union tour of New Zealand was a series of matches played in May and June 1997 in New Zealand by Fiji national rugby union team.
Scores and results list Fiji's points tally first.
| Opposing Team | For | Against | Date | Venue | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Island Inv. XV | 24 | 31 | 26 May 1997 | Westport | Tour match |
| Mid-.South Canterbury | 55 | 24 | 29 May 1997 | Timaru | Tour match |
| Central Vikings | 19 | 10 | 1 June 1997 | Palmerston North | Tour match |
| Wanganui | 28 | 19 | 5 June 1997 | Wanganui | Tour match |
| Counties Manukau | 20 | 23 | 11 June 1997 | Pukekohe | Tour match |
| New Zealand | 5 | 71 | 14 June 1997 | Albany | Test match |
The Rugby Championship, formerly known as the Tri Nations Series (1996–2011), is an international rugby union competition contested annually by Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. These are traditionally the four highest ranked national teams in the Southern Hemisphere; the Six Nations is a similar tournament in the Northern Hemisphere.
World Rugby is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international competitions, such as the World Rugby Sevens Series, the Rugby World Cup Sevens, the World Under 20 Championship, and the Pacific Nations Cup.
Waisale Tikoisolomoni Serevi is a Fijian former rugby union football player and coach, and is a member of the World Rugby Hall of Fame. Serevi is renowned for his achievements in rugby sevens, while also enjoying a long career in fifteen-a-side rugby at both club and national team levels. Nicknamed "The Wizard" by commentators, he is widely considered to be the greatest rugby sevens player in the history of the game. A biography of Serevi titled Waisale Serevi: King of Sevens by Nick Darvenzi was published in 2018.
The Samoa national rugby union team represents the Samoa Rugby Union in men's international rugby union. They are also known as "Manu Samoa", which is thought to derive from the name of a Samoan warrior. They perform a traditional Samoan challenge called the siva tau before each game. Samoa Rugby Union were formerly members of the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance (PIRA) along with Fiji and Tonga. They are ranked 11th in the world.
Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) is the governing body for the sport of rugby union in Fiji. It is divided into over 30 provincial unions. The Fiji Rugby Union is a member of the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance (PIRA), along with Samoa and Tonga. There are approximately 80,000 registered players from a total population of around 950,000.
Rugby World Cup Sevens (RWCS) is the quadrennial world championship of rugby sevens, a variant of rugby union. Organised by World Rugby, it currently consists of men's and women's tournaments, and is the highest level of competition in the sport outside of the Summer Olympics.
The Pacific Tri-Nations was the traditional rugby union series between Tonga, Fiji and Samoa. It was established in 1982 with the Samoan team, then known as Western Samoa, winning the tournament. In 2006 it was replaced by the IRB Pacific 5 Nations which was then renamed the Pacific Nations Cup.
The Fiji national rugby sevens team has competed in the World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens and the Olympics. Fiji won the gold medal in the inaugural rugby sevens at the Summer Olympics in 2016 in Brazil, the country's first Olympic medal in any event, and repeated as Olympic champions in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, defeating New Zealand. Thus Fiji is the sole nation to have won Olympic gold in the sport. They are the only country in the world to have won the Sevens Treble, the three major achievements in Sevens. They have won multiple World Rugby Sevens Series and Rugby World Cup Sevens.
Rugby union in Fiji is a popular team sport and is considered to be the national sport of the country. The sport was introduced to Fiji in the 1880s. Fiji is defined as a tier two rugby nation by World Rugby. The national team has competed at the Rugby World Cup and made it as far as the quarter-finals. Their sevens team is also noted for their success, winning multiple Olympic gold medals, World Rugby Sevens Series and Rugby World Cup Sevens.
Marika "Dawainavesi" Vunibaka is a Fijian former rugby union player. He represented the Fiji national team on numerous occasions, including at the 1999 Rugby World Cup in Wales and the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia.
Warrick Lee "Mac" McCallion was a New Zealand rugby union player and coach.
Stuart Dickinson is an Australian former Rugby union referee. Dickinson has refereed in many rugby competitions, including the Rugby World Cup, Tri Nations, Six Nations, international friendlies, Super 12/14/15, and Shute Shield. He was a referee at the 1999 Rugby World Cup, the 2003 Rugby World Cup, and the 2007 Rugby World Cup. He is Australia's most-capped referee, and the only Australian referee to appear at three Rugby World Cups.
The Fiji women's national rugby union team are a national sporting side of Fiji, representing them at rugby union. They played their first test against Samoa in 2006, and compete annually in the Oceania Rugby Women's Championship. In 2022, they created history when they scored the third-highest points in both Men's and Women's Rugby at the Oceania Championship when they trounced Papua New Guinea 152–0. They made their first Rugby World Cup appearance at the delayed tournament in New Zealand.
The Japan Sevens, also known as the Tokyo Sevens, is an annual rugby sevens tournament held at the Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. It was a part of the Sevens World Series from 2000 to 2001 and from 2012 to 2015.
The Super League World Nines, was a pre-season rugby league nines tournament between national sides. Set up in the midst of the Super League war and created in opposition to the Australian Rugby League's World Sevens tournament, the tournament was held twice before being abandoned when the two factions merged to form the National Rugby League.
The 1997 Ireland rugby union tour of Oceania was a series of matches played in May in June 1997 in New Zealand and Samoa by the Ireland A national rugby union team, while the best Irish players where involved in the 1997 British Lions tour to South Africa.
The 1996 Fiji rugby union tour of New Zealand and South Africa were a series of matches played in June and July in New Zealand and South Africa by Fiji national rugby union team.
The Fiji Sevens, also known as the Suva Sevens is an international rugby union sevens tournament held at the National Stadium in Suva, Fiji. It was a part of the Sevens World Series in 2000, but in the wake of the Fijian coup d'état later that year, the tournament was dropped from the World circuit for the following season.
Vilimoni Koroi is a New Zealand rugby union player. Koroi was born to Fijian parents Taniela and Seruwaia in Whanganui and was a student at Feilding High School. Koroi played his first match for the New Zealand national rugby sevens team at the 2017 Wellington Sevens.
Mick Cleary, ed. (1998). Rothmans Rugby Union Yearbook 1998–99. Headline. ISBN 0-7472-7653-6.
Rugby union tours of New Zealand | |
|---|---|
| British & Irish Lions | |
Australia  | |
New South Wales  | |
South Africa  | |
Argentina  | |
England  | |
France  | |
Ireland  | |
Italy  | |
Scotland  | |
Wales  | |
Romania  |
|
Japan  | |
Fiji  | |
Western Samoa  | |
Pacific Islanders  | |
Canada  | |