The Rugby League Pacific Championship is a rugby league tournament for national teams in Oceania. Its inaugural tournament was in 2019 as the "Oceania Cup".
Current season or competition: 2024 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 |
The tournament replaced the Anzac Test Series (1997–2018), which solely featured Australia and New Zealand as a single match annual test. Before the Pacific Championships, regular regional competition between the other Oceanian countries was sporadic since the ceesing of the Pacific Cup (1974–2009) which served as a development competition for the Pacific Islands.
History
The tournament was created in 2019 as the Oceania Cup 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]
The tournament returned in 2023, following the pandemic and postponed 2021 Rugby League World Cup, under the name Pacific Championships. The tournament came as part of a $7 million investment by the NRL and Australian Government to develop rugby league in the surrounding countries,[4][5] in addition to forming part of the International Rugby League new seven year international calendar.[6]
2024 saw the introduction of the women's competition.[7][8] Note women's games were held in 2023, but as a series of friendlies and in no structured competition.[6] The 2024 Women's Bowl will also be the Asia-Pacific qualification tournament for the 2026 Women's Rugby League World Cup.[9][10] For 2024 onwards, promotion and relegation will not be automatic and would occur via a playoff.[11]
Format
The Pacific Rugby League Championship is a competition for men's national teams of the seven full member of International Rugby League (IRL) 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.
The women's competition, introduced in 2024, followed a very similar format and similarly is for women's national teams of the Oceanian IRL full members:
Like the men's, the tournament is divided into two divisions. Though, unlike the men's, the lower tier contains four teams as no regular touring schedule has been planned for the women's sides.
Men's Tournaments
| Cup | Shield/Bowl | Team on Tour | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Champions | Runners-up | Third place | Year | Champions | Runners-up | Third place | |||||
2019 |
 Australia |
 New Zealand |
 Tonga[lower-alpha 2] |
2019 |
 Fiji Promoted |
 Samoa |
 Papua New Guinea |
None[lower-alpha 3] | ||||
2020 |
Cancelled:[lower-alpha 4] New Zealand,  Tonga, and  Fiji |
2020 |
Cancelled:[lower-alpha 4] Samoa,  Papua New Guinea, and  Cook Islands |
Kangaroo tour of England[lower-alpha 4] | ||||||||
| 2021–2022: No tournament due to the 2021 Rugby League World Cup (held in 2022)[lower-alpha 5] | ||||||||||||
2023 |
New Zealand |
Australia |
Samoa |
2023 |
Papua New Guinea |
Fiji |
 Cook Islands |
Tonga tour of England | ||||
2024 |
Australia, New Zealand, and Tonga |
2024 |
Cook Islands, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea |
Samoa tour of England[lower-alpha 6] | ||||||||
| 2025 | No confirmed tournament | 2025 | No confirmed tournament | Australia hosting England Cook Islands at the World Series | ||||||||
| 2026: No tournament due to the 2026 Rugby League World Cup | ||||||||||||
Results by team
| Team / Year | 2019 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 1st | 2nd | 1-3 |
| Cook Islands | — | 6th | 4-6 |
| Fiji | 4th | 5th | 4-6 |
| New Zealand | 2nd | 1st | 1-3 |
| Papua New Guinea | 6th | 4th | 4-6 |
| Samoa | 5th | 3rd | Tour |
| Tonga | 3rd | Tour | 1-3 |
Women's Tournaments
| Cup | Bowl | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Champions | Runners-up | Third place | Year | Champions | Runners-up | Third place | Fourth place | ||
2024 |
Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea |
2024 |
Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga | |||||||
Results by team
| Team / Year | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Australia | 1-3 |
| Cook Islands | 4-7 |
| Fiji | 4-7 |
| New Zealand | 1-3 |
| Papua New Guinea | 1-3 |
| Samoa | 4-7 |
| Tonga | 4-7 |
Notes
- 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
- Following the tournament's rebrand as the Pacific Championships, previous promotions and relegations were nullified and teams were reseeded based on rank.
- It was expected that Samoa would also play in the Pacific Championships having reduced the length of their tour from three games to two.[12][13] However, following an announcement from New Zealand Rugby League regarding the tournament, Samoa was omitted from the fixture list.[7]
References
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