The Pacific Nations Cup 2024 will be played across five weekends from 23 August to 21 September 2024. It features six teams, initially playing across two pools and then in knock-out rounds to produce an overall champion.
Pool phase
In the pool phase, the six teams are split into two regional pools, where they will play each other in one home-or-away match:
Pool A - Fiji, Samoa, Tonga
Pool B - Canada, Japan, USA
Finals Series
After the pool phase all six nations will travel to either Japan or USA (on alternate years) to compete in the knock-out Finals Series where the two best-ranked teams in each pool will play the semi-finals (A1 v B2 and B1 v A2) and the third-ranked teams will compete in the 5th-6th play-off.
The third-place play-off and final will be played on the final weekend crowning the Pacific Nations Cup champion.
A brief history
2006 to 2009 - the three Pacific island nations of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga competed against representative sides from New Zealand (either Junior All Blacks or NZ Maori) and Australia (Australia A).
2010 to 2012 - the tournament was a four-team competition featuring Japan.
2013 - Canada and USA joined a tournament featuring Fiji, Japan and Tonga. Samoa did not compete.
2016 and 2017 - the tournament only featured Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, while Canada, Japan and USA played in respective regional qualifiers for Rugby World Cup 2019.
2018 - Georgia was invited to compete in a tournament hosted in Suva, Fiji.
2019 - Canada, Japan and USA all returned for a six-team tournament held in the run-up to RWC 2019.
2020 and 2021 - the tournament was not held due to the Covid pandemic.
2022 - Fiji, Samoa and Tonga were joined by Australia A.
2023 - Australia A were replaced by Japan.
Champions by year
2006 Junior All Blacks
2007 Junior All Blacks
2008 New Zealand Maori
2009 Junior All Blacks
2010 Samoa
2011 Japan
2012 Samoa
2013 Fiji
2014 Japan and Samoa (each won their conference)
2015 Fiji
2016 Fiji
2017 Fiji
2018 Fiji
2019 Japan
2022 Samoa