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.
The Super Cup or Super Powers Cup was an international rugby union competition contested from 2003 to 2005. It featured teams representing Canada, Japan, Russia, the United States and Romania.
The United States men's national rugby union team, nicknamed the Eagles, represents the United States of America Rugby Football Union in men's international rugby union. USA Rugby is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States, and is a member of Rugby Americas North, one of six regional governing bodies under World Rugby. Until rugby returned to Olympic competition, with sevens at the 2016 Rio Games, the United States was the reigning Olympic rugby champion, having defeated the one other competitor in 1920 and the two other competitors at the 1924 Summer Olympics.
The 2004 Pacific Rim Championship and the 2004 Pacific Cup was the 9th Pacific Cup, a rugby league tournament held between Pacific teams. The tournament was hosted in Auckland and for the first time split into two competitions; The Pacific Rim Championship between national teams and the Pacific Cup between Auckland-based selections. In the final of the Pacific Rim competition the Cook Islands defeated New Zealand Māori 46-6 while Samoa XIII defeated Tonga XIII 52–18 to win the Pacific Cup.
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 World Rugby Pacific Challenge, formerly the IRB Pacific Rugby Cup, is an annual rugby union football tournament held in Oceania since 2006. It is contested by national 'A' teams from the Asia-Pacific region. The tournament is run by World Rugby through Oceania 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.
The 2006 IRB Pacific 5 Nations was the inaugural IRB Pacific 5 Nations rugby union competition held between five Pacific Rim sides; Fiji, Japan, Samoa, Tonga and the Junior All Blacks. The inaugural tournament kicked off on 3 June 2006 with the Junior All Blacks proclaimed the winner after their 38–8 defeat of Japan on 24 June 2006.
The 2007 IRB Pacific Nations Cup was a rugby union competition held between six Pacific Rim sides; Australia A, Fiji, Japan, Samoa, Tonga and the Junior All Blacks. This was the first year that Australia A had competed – Australia had declined the invitation to compete in the inaugural competition in 2006 because they wanted to focus on their domestic competition, but on 18 October 2006 it was announced that they would send their second XV. For this reason, the inaugural tournament was renamed the Pacific Nations Cup instead of the IRB Pacific Five Nations as it had been called in 2006.
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.
The Oceania Rugby Men's Championship is an international rugby union competition for countries and territories from Oceania with national teams in the developmental band. It is administered by Oceania Rugby.
The 2009 Pacific Nations Cup is a rugby union tournament held between five national sides on the Pacific Rim: Fiji, Japan, Samoa, Tonga and the Junior All Blacks. The New Zealand Māori team that won the tournament last year will no longer take part in this competition because of a decision taken by the New Zealand Rugby Union. Australia A has also decided to pull out due to a similar decision. The inaugural competition was held in 2006. This year the tournament will begin on June 12 and ends on July 3, 2009 and most of the matches will be hosted by Fiji. The awarding of the key international tournament to the Fiji Rugby Union represents a further boost to the continued development of rugby in the region. The two opening round matches will be played outside of Fiji with Samoa hosting the Junior All Blacks in Apia and Tonga entertaining the Fijians in Nukuʻalofa the following day before the tournament moves to Fiji for a 17-day festival of international rugby spread across three match venues: the ANZ National Stadium (Suva), Churchill Park (Lautoka) and Lawaqa Park (Sigatoka).
The 2010 Pacific Nations Cup was a rugby union tournament held between four national sides on the Pacific Rim: Fiji, Japan, Samoa and Tonga. The competition was won by Samoa.
The 2011 Pacific Nations Cup was a rugby union tournament held between the four national sides on the Pacific Rim: Fiji, Japan, Samoa and Tonga.
The 2012 Pacific Nations Cup rugby union tournament was held between the four national sides on the Pacific Rim: Fiji, Japan, Samoa and Tonga.
K. Manakaetau F. 'Otai is coach of the Tonga national team. He was educated at St Peter's College, Auckland and played club rugby in Auckland. His playing position was as flanker. Otai represented Tonga, being capped for the first time on 11 February 1995 against Japan at Nagoya. Otai was the Tongan team captain in the 1995 Rugby World Cup competition, in which he scored a try. Otai was an All Black trialist in 1994.
The 2013 Pacific Nations Cup rugby union tournament was held between five national sides in the Pacific Region: Canada, Fiji, Japan, Tonga, and USA.
The 2014 IRB Pacific Nations Cup, was the ninth edition of the IRB Pacific Nations Cup, the annual Tier 2 Rugby union tournament. Unlike previous competitions, the tournament was divided into two conferences of three teams each, with no interconference matches. Samoa emerged as the winner of the Pacific Islands conference title ahead of Fiji and Tonga, while Japan took out the Asia/Pacific conference remaining undefeated ahead of United States and Canada.
Milton Haig is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former player. He was the head coach of the Georgian national team that annually competes the European Nations Cup.
Fiji (2001)
Canada (3 times)
