Rugby League Pacific Championship
The Rugby League Pacific Championship is a rugby league tournament for national teams in Oceania. Its inaugural tournament was in 2019. Of the seven Oceanian teams, six compete across two divisions of three teams, while a rotating seventh goes on tour.
| Current season or competition: 2023 Rugby League Pacific Championships | |
| Sport | Rugby league |
|---|---|
| Instituted | 2019 |
| Inaugural season | 2019 |
| Number of teams | 7 |
| Region | Oceania (APRL) |
| Holders | New Zealand (2023) |
| Most titles | Australia New Zealand (1 title) |
| Broadcast partner | Nine Network Fox League Sky Sport |
| Related competition | Pacific Cup |
History edit
The tournament was created in 2019 with a two tiered format.[1] The top tier (cup) consisted of Australia, New Zealand and Tonga and the second tier (shield) consisted of Fiji, Samoa and Papua New Guinea.
Australia won the Cup in the inaugural season while Fiji won the shield and got promoted for the 2020 competition.
For the 2020 edition, Cook Islands were scheduled to take Fiji's place in the shield.[2] No team was relegated from the cup as Australia were going to go on a tour of England that year. The competition was scheduled to begin in June and conclude in November, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3]
In 2023, International Rugby League announced the return of the tournament under the name Pacific Championships as part of a new seven years international calendar.[4]
Format edit
The Pacific Rugby League Championship is a competition for the seven full member of International Rugby League located in Oceania:
The tournament currently is divided into two divisions of three teams based on IRL rankings, while the seventh team tours a European Rugby League nation.
Each team plays three matches in a single round robin with the top two advancing to the division final.
Tournaments edit
| Year | Cup | Shield/Bowl | Team on Tour | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Champions | Runners-up | Third place | Champions | Runners-up | Third place | |||||
| 2019 | Australia | New Zealand | Tonga | Fiji | Samoa | Papua New Guinea | None[b] | |||
| 2020[c] | New Zealand, Tonga, and Fiji | Samoa, Papua New Guinea, and Cook Islands | Kangaroo tour of England | |||||||
| 2023 | New Zealand | Australia | Samoa | Papua New Guinea | Fiji | Cook Islands | Tonga tour of England | |||
| 2024 | TBA | TBA | TBA | |||||||
Results by team edit
| Team / Year | 2019 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Australia | 1st | 2nd |
| Cook Islands | — | 6th |
| Fiji | 4th | 5th |
| New Zealand | 2nd | 1st |
| Papua New Guinea | 6th | 4th |
| Samoa | 5th | 3rd |
| Tonga | 3rd | Tour |
Notes edit
- ^ The Cook Islands did not participate in the inaugural 2019 edition
- ^ New Zealand and Papua New Guinea hosted a tour by Great Britain in which Tonga also played, however all teams still participated in the 2019 Oceania Cup.
- ^ Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
References edit
- ^ "RLIF Oceania Cup confirmed for 2019". rlif.com. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
- ^ "Oceania Cup is back with three cracking Double Headers". Asia Pacific Rugby League Confederation. 2020-02-25. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
- ^ "Oceania Cup cancelled for 2020". Asia Pacific Rugby League Confederation. 2020-09-04. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
- ^ https://www.intrl.sport/news/australia-new-zealand-png-to-host-2023-pacific-championships/