Rugby union at the Pacific Games

Rugby union at the Pacific Games has been contested since 1963 when included as one of ten sports at the first games held in Suva, Fiji.[1] Rugby sevens is the form of rugby now played at the Pacific Games, with men's and women's tournaments (for 7-a-side teams) included in the current schedule. The women's competition was added for the first time at the 2011 Pacific Games held in Nouméa.

Prior to the late 1990s the men's tournament at the South Pacific Games, as it was then known, was contested by national rugby union teams (i.e. 15-a-side). The shorter tournament structure of rugby sevens being better suited to multi-sports events led to the change of format.

In 2014, Australia and New Zealand were invited to participate in some events for the 2015 Pacific Games,[2] and the Australian women's sevens team was subsequently confirmed as a competitor for the women's tournament in Port Moresby.[3]

Rugby sevens is also played at the Pacific Mini Games, and was included for the first time at Pago Pago in 1997.

Pacific Games

Men's tournament

The men's tournament is now played as a rugby sevens competition (for 7-a-side teams). From 1963 until 1995 the competition was for national rugby union teams (15-a-side). The first two events in 1963 and 1966 were played as round-robin competitions only and, as such, did not include finals.

Year	Games	Host city	Final			Third place	Ref
			Gold	Score	Silver	Bronze
			Rugby 15s
1963 ()	I	Suva	Fiji	round robin	Tonga	Western Samoa	[4][5]
1966 ()	II	Nouméa	Papua New Guinea	round robin	New Caledonia	New Hebrides	[6]
1969 ()	III	Port Moresby	Fiji	88–3	Papua New Guinea	New Caledonia	[7]
1971 ()	IV	Papeete	Western Samoa	23–9	Cook Islands	Tahiti	[8][9] [10]
1975			No rugby tournament in 1975
1979 ()	VI	Suva	Tonga	6–3	Fiji	New Caledonia	[11][12]
1983 ()	VII	Apia	Fiji	18–10	Western Samoa	Tonga	[13]
1987 ()	VIII	Nouméa	New Caledonia	22–9	Cook Islands	Tahiti	[14][15] [16]
1991 ()	IX	Port Moresby	Western Samoa	34–7	American Samoa	Solomon Islands	[17][18]
1995 ()	X	Papeete	New Caledonia	12–8 13–3	Tahiti	n/a	[19][14] [upper-alpha 1]
			Rugby 7s
1999 ()	XI	Santa Rita	Fiji	40–12	Papua New Guinea	Vanuatu	[20][21] [22][upper-alpha 2]
2003 ()	XII	Suva	Fiji	43–10	Cook Islands	Samoa	[26]
2007 ()	XIII	Apia	Fiji	26–19	Samoa	Papua New Guinea	[27][28] [29]
2011 ()	XIV	Nouméa	Samoa	21–19	Fiji	Papua New Guinea	[30]
2015 ()	XV	Port Moresby	Fiji	33–7	Samoa	Tonga	[31]
2019 ()	XVI	Apia	Fiji	7–5	Samoa	Tonga	[32]

Women's tournament

Rugby sevens for women was added to the Pacific Games schedule in 2011 at Nouméa.

Year	Games	Host city	Final			Third place	Ref
			Gold	Score	Silver	Bronze
			Rugby 7s
2011 ()	XIV	Nouméa	Fiji	43–7	Samoa	Papua New Guinea
2015 ()	XV	Port Moresby	Fiji	12–10	Australia	Papua New Guinea	[31]
2019 ()	XVI	Apia	Fiji	19–5	Australia	Papua New Guinea	[32]

Medal table

The all-time medal standings for rugby at the Pacific Games, including the South Pacific Games, from 1963–present is collated in the table below. This includes 15s and 7s versions of rugby union and both men's and women's events, but does not include medals from the Mini Games.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Fiji	11	2	0	13
2	Samoa[upper-alpha 3]	3	5	2	10
3	New Caledonia	2	1	2	5
4	Papua New Guinea	1	2	5	8
5	Tonga	1	1	3	5
6	Cook Islands	0	3	0	3
7	Australia	0	2	0	2
8	Tahiti	0	1	2	3
9	American Samoa	0	1	0	1
10	Vanuatu[upper-alpha 4]	0	0	2	2
11	Solomon Islands	0	0	1	1
Totals (11 nations)		18	18	17	53

Updated to 2019.

Pacific Mini Games

Men's tournaments

Year	Games	Host city	Final			Third place	Ref
			Gold	Score	Silver	Bronze
			Rugby 15s
1985 ()	II	Rarotonga	Cook Islands	def.	New Caledonia	Tahiti	[33][34] [35]
			Rugby 7s
1997 ()	V	Pago Pago	Samoa	57–0	American Samoa	Solomon Islands	[36][37]
2009 ()	VII	Rarotonga	Samoa	36–12	Fiji	Tonga	[38]
2013 ()	IX	Mata-Utu	Samoa	31–12	Fiji	Tonga	[39]
2017 ()	X	Port Vila	Samoa	14–7	Fiji	Tonga	[40][41][42]

Medal table

The all-time medal standings for rugby at the Pacific Mini Games, including the South Pacific Mini Games, from 1985–present is collated in the table below. This includes 15s and 7s versions of rugby union and both men's and women's events.

All-time medal table – Pacific Mini Games Rugby

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Samoa	4	0	0	4
2	Cook Islands	1	0	0	1
3	Fiji	0	3	0	3
4	American Samoa	0	1	0	1
	New Caledonia	0	1	0	1
6	Tonga	0	0	3	3
7	Solomon Islands	0	0	1	1
	Tahiti	0	0	1	1
Totals (8 nations)		5	5	5	15

See also

• Oceania Sevens
• Oceania Women's Sevens
• Rugby sevens at the Commonwealth Games
• Rugby sevens at the Summer Olympics

Notes

1. As reported in Pacific Islands Monthly, Tahiti had agreed to host rugby union for the 1995 games.[43] Initially it was decided to host 22 sports but 4 others were added (netball, squash, surfing and powerlifting).[44]
2. Vanuatu won a medal for rugby sevens at the 1999 SPG.[23] The team defeated the Solomon Islands in the play-off for the bronze.[24][25]
3. Includes medals won as Western Samoa
4. Includes medals won as New Hebrides

References

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