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.
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.
The Tonga national rugby union team represents the Tonga Rugby Union in men's international rugby union. The team is nicknamed ʻIkale Tahi . Like their Polynesian neighbours, the Tongans start their matches with a traditional challenge – the Sipi Tau. They are members of the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance (PIRA) along with Fiji and Samoa. The Ikale Tahi achieved a historic 19–14 victory over France in the 2011 Rugby World Cup, but having lost to New Zealand and Canada, were unable to achieve what would have been their first-ever presence at the quarter-finals.
The Tonga national rugby league team represents Tonga in rugby league football. They are currently the fifth ranked team in the world. The team was formed to compete in the 1986 Pacific Cup, and have competed at six Rugby League World Cups, starting in 1995 and continuing consecutively until the most recent tournament. Their best result was at the 2017 Rugby League World Cup, where they were semi-finalists.
Viliami Ofahengaue, widely known as Willie O, is a former rugby union player who earned 41 caps for the Australian Wallabies from 1990 to 1998, and played in the World Cups of 1991 and 1995 as well as the 1993 World Cup Sevens.
Rugby union is the national sport of Tonga. Tonga are considered to be a tier 2 rugby nation by the International Rugby Board.
Australia A is the second national Rugby union team of Australia, behind the Wallabies. Matches played under the 'Australia A' title are traditionally non-test match fixtures and often offer a stepping-stone to Wallaby national selection. Aspiring Wallaby players were given a chance to impress selectors during these games. In the past, the team would also play touring sides, such as the British & Irish Lions, or play mid-week games when the Wallabies are on tour.
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.
Konileti "Konrad" Hurrell is a Tongan professional rugby league footballer who plays as a centre for St Helens in the Super League and Tonga at international level.
The Australia women's national rugby sevens team, are the Australia national rugby sevens team of women. They were champions of the inaugural Women's Sevens World Cup in 2009. The team plays in the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series as one of the "core teams" on the world tour, of which they have been crowned Champions three times. The team also played in the preceding competition to the current world series, the IRB Women's Sevens Challenge Cup. In 2016, they won the inaugural gold medal at the Rio Summer Olympics.
Daniel Tupou is a professional rugby league footballer who plays on the wing for the Sydney Roosters in the National Rugby League (NRL). He has played for Tonga and Australia at international level.
Cory Allen is a retired Welsh international rugby union player. A centre or wing, he played for Cardiff Blues and the Ospreys. Allen joined the Dragons in 2021, but did not feature for the side.
Fakahau Valu is a former Tongan rugby union player. He played as a flanker.
Rusila Nagasau is a Fijian rugby union player. She plays rugby sevens for Fiji and was also a representative soccer player. She was included in the squad for the 2016 France Women's Sevens.
Raijieli Daveua is a Fijian rugby sevens player. She was selected as a member of the Fiji women's national rugby sevens team to the 2016 Summer Olympics.
The Cook Islands women's national rugby league team, also known as the Cook Islands Moana represents Cook Islands in Women's rugby league. The Cook Islands competed in the 2003 and 2017 Women's Rugby League World Cups. The Cook Islands have qualified for the 2021 Women's Rugby League World Cup which, after a delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is scheduled to be played in November 2022. The Cook Islands have prequalified for the 2025 Women's Rugby League World Cup.
Michaela Blyde is a New Zealand professional rugby sevens player and Olympic gold medalist. She was the first female player to win back-to-back World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year titles in 2017 and 2018. Blyde holds the record for the most tries by a New Zealand women sevens player in a single match and also the record for most tries in a single fixture when she scored five tries against England in Langford in 2017. Blyde has won gold medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, 2018 Sevens World Cup, 2018 Commonwealth Games and six Sevens titles. In December 2023 She was the second woman to score 200 tries in the HSBC international seven series.
Keta Iongi (1947–2017) was a female athlete who competed for Tonga at the South Pacific Games and at the British Commonwealth Games as a sprinter and hurdler and in the modern pentathlon.
Tonga competed at the 2022 Commonwealth Games at Birmingham, England from 28 July to 8 August 2022. Tonga made its eleventh attendance at the Games.
Corey Toole is an Australian rugby union and rugby sevens player. He plays domestically with the Brumbies in the Super Rugby. From Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Toole played for Wagga Waratahs Rugby Club and the Gungahlin Eagles before joining the Brumbies Academy. Toole has also represented the ACT Schoolboys at Nationals.
