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| Sport | Rugby union |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1915 [1] |
| PIRA affiliation | 2002 |
| Website | Official Website |
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.
Otherwise known as the "Flying Fijians," the team gained No 9 in the IRB World Rankings after defeating Wales to enter the 2007 Rugby World Cup but slid down No 11 as a result of losses in the 2008 IRB Pacific Nations Cup. They sit 8th in the IRB world rankings as of 26 November 2018.
Fiji has won the Rugby World Cup Sevens twice, in 1997 and the 2005. They also play in the World Rugby Sevens Series, an annual circuit of eight tournaments around the world, winning the series in 2006 and ending the six-year reign of New Zealand on that circuit. However, they lost the title to New Zealand in 2007, and did not win any tournaments in the 2007–2008 Series. Fiji has shone in rugby sevens, finishing the 2013 Sevens World Series third behind New Zealand and South Africa.
Other teams include the Fiji A "Warriors", Fiji Under 20 team (competing at the annual IRB Junior World Championship), other age group international teams, and a women's team, currently under development and hoping for an invitation to the Women's Rugby World Cup.
The national provincial Premier championship is the Skipper Cup competition.
A professional six team domestic competition, the Colonial Cup (similar in design to Super Rugby), ran from 2004 to 2008. Before this, Fiji had 12 Division One teams. Five teams were made up of the players from the 12 Division One teams, based on regional lines, with the aim of creating a "more competitive competition that leads on and provides a higher level of competitive domestic rugby".
The FRU also has developed a base pay for players at international level.
Domestic competitions include the Farebrother-Sullivan Trophy, and a domestic 7s tournament.
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 world 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.
Rugby sevens is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. Rugby sevens is administered by World Rugby, the body responsible for rugby union worldwide. The game is popular at all levels, with amateur and club tournaments generally held in the summer months. Sevens is one of the most well distributed forms of rugby, and is popular in parts of Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, and especially in the South Pacific.
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.
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 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.
The Pacific Nations Cup is an international rugby union competition held between three Pacific states: Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. The 2019 edition of the tournament also included the national teams of Canada, Japan and United States. First held in 2006, the tournament is intended to strengthen the Tier 2 rugby teams by providing competitive test matches in a tournament format.
The Niue Island national rugby union team is the national team of the third tier rugby union playing nation of Niue Island. The team first started playing in 1983 in mainly competes in the Oceania Cup, which it won in 2008. Rugby union in Niue Island is administered by the Niue Rugby Football Union.
Rugby union has been played in New Zealand since 1870 and is the most popular sport in the country as well as being its national sport.
Rugby union in Argentina is a hugely popular team sport. The first rugby match played in the country dates back to 1873, as the game was introduced by the British. The Argentina national team, sometimes referred to as the Pumas, have competed at the Rugby World Cup, and are considered a tier one nation by the sport's governing body, World Rugby.
Rugby union in Samoa is the country's most popular sport. The national teams in both the standard 15-man game and rugby sevens are consistently competitive against teams from vastly more populous nations.
Rugby union is the national sport of Tonga. Tonga are considered to be a tier 2 rugby nation by the International Rugby Board.
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.
Sireli Masibalavu Naqelevuki plays as a prop in rugby sevens but in traditional 15s he is a wing or centre. He made his rugby sevens debut in 2002 in Dubai Sevens. He is 1.93m tall (6'4") and weighs 118 kg. Contracted to the FRU, he played in seven of the eight IRB 7s tournaments when Fiji won the 2005–06 Series. His father, test rep Samu Naqelevuki, was a hard-hitting utility back who died in November 2002 only a few days after Sireli had been selected for the Fiji 7s team.
The Samoa national rugby sevens team, referred to as Samoa Sevens or Manu Samoa 7s, competes in the annual World Rugby Sevens Series. Representing the polynesian country of Samoa, with a population of about 202,000, the team competes against some of the wealthiest countries in the world. The Samoa sevens team is overseen by the Samoa Rugby Football Union, which oversees all of rugby union in Samoa.
The Fiji Barbarians is a Fijian former rugby union representative team that played in the Pacific Rugby Cup from 2006 to 2010. The other Fijian team in the Cup was the Fiji Warriors. The players were drawn from the Fijian domestic competitions.
The IRB Pacific Rugby Cup 2008 was the third edition of the Pacific Rugby Cup competition. First held in 2006, the 2008 edition, like its predecessors, featured 6 representative rugby union football teams; 2 from each of the three Pacific rugby unions - Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.
Iliesa Samusamuvodre Tanivula is a former New Zealand sevens player and the current coach of the Fiji sevens team. Tanivula could play most positions in the backline. He mainly played at centre, wing or fullback.
John Gregory McKee is a rugby union coach from New Zealand. He is a former coach of the Fiji national rugby 15s team.
Branco Bewinn Nazeem du Preez is a former South African rugby union player, playing with the South Africa national rugby sevens team. He is a utility back, but usually plays as a scrum-half for the Blitzbokke. Du Preez retired as the most capped South African Rugby Sevens player.
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