Rugby union in the Solomon Islands

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Rugby union in the Solomon Islands
Country Solomon Islands
Governing body Solomon Islands Rugby Union
National team Solomon Islands
Registered players 3,068
Clubs 24
National competitions

Rugby union in Solomon Islands is a popular sport. [1] The national team have competed in various international competitions. They are currently ranked 69th by the IRB, with 3068 registered players and 24 clubs. [2]

Rugby union team sport, code of rugby football

Rugby union, commonly known in most of the world simply as rugby, is a contact team sport which originated in England in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its most common form, a game is between two teams of 15 players using an oval-shaped ball on a rectangular field with H-shaped goalposts on each try line.

Solomon Islands country in Oceania

Solomon Islands is a sovereign state consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania lying to the east of Papua New Guinea and northwest of Vanuatu and covering a land area of 28,400 square kilometres (11,000 sq mi). The country's capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal. The country takes its name from the Solomon Islands archipelago, which is a collection of Melanesian islands that also includes the North Solomon Islands, but excludes outlying islands, such as Rennell and Bellona, and the Santa Cruz Islands.

Contents

Governing body

The governing body is the Solomon Islands Rugby Union. [3]

History

Rugby union continues to be a popular sport in the Solomon Islands despite aggressive occasional overtures from rugby league. Despite large amounts of money and advertising, the Solomon Islanders remained loyal to rugby union, and rugby league in the islands underwent a ten-year hibernation. [4] These efforts have now been compounded by Rupert Murdoch backed television, but still without little return from the vast amounts of money spent.

Rugby league team sport, code of rugby football

Rugby league football is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field. One of the two codes of rugby, it originated in Northern England in 1895 as a split from the Rugby Football Union over the issue of payments to players. Its rules progressively changed with the aim of producing a faster, more entertaining game for spectators.

Rupert Murdoch Australian-American media mogul

Keith Rupert Murdoch, is an Australian-born American media mogul.

Delegates from the Solomon Islands were amongst those who went to the centenary congress of the International Rugby Football Board in 1986. [5]

Like many Pacific archipelagos, rugby sevens is the preferred code, and there are regular competitions. [6]

Rugby sevens ballgame-team sport

Rugby sevens, and originally known as seven-a-side rugby, 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.

There is also a successful schools competition. [7]

National team

The Solomon Islands national rugby union team played their first international at 18 August 1969, losing to Papua New Guinea by 23-5. Their next game, three days later, with Fiji show their record loss of 113-13. Both games were part of the 3rd South Pacific Games. Since then they have played in only a small number of internationals. Their first win came in 1983, in a 19-12 win over Niue, for the 7th South Pacific Games.

See also

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References

  1. ↑ South Pacific and Micronesia. Lonely Planet. 2006. p. 53. ISBN   1-74104-304-2.
  2. ↑ "International Rugby Board - World Rankings". Archived from the original on 10 August 2011.
  3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 15 September 2011. Retrieved 25 September 2011. retrieved 3 July 2009
  4. ↑ "Solomon Islands Rugby League Planet". Rugby League Planet. 2009-06-18. Retrieved 2009-06-18.
  5. ↑ Starmer-Smith, p186
  6. ↑ http://solomonstarnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9985&Itemid=42
  7. ↑ http://solomonstarnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9060&Itemid=42
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