Rugby union at the Pacific Games

This article is about the 15-a-side version of the game that was played between 1963–1995. For the 7-a-side version of the game that replaced it, see Rugby sevens at the Pacific Games.

Rugby union has been a men's medal sport at the South Pacific Games (now Pacific Games), being played at nine of the first ten competitions. The sport debuted at the inaugural 1963 games where the gold medal was won by the host nation. It was subsequently featured in the following games till the tenth games in 1995.

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 version of the sport, rugby sevens, being better suited to multi-sports events led to the change of the games programme. The event made its debut in the Pacific Games programme at the 1997 South Pacific Mini Games.

Results summary

Year	Host		Final				Bronze medal match				Ref
			Gold medal	Score	Silver medal		Bronze medal	Score	Fourth place
1963	Suva		Fiji	round robin	Tonga		Western Samoa	n/a	only three teams entered		[1][2]
1966	Nouméa		Papua New Guinea	round robin	New Caledonia		New Hebrides	round robin	Wallis and Futuna		[3]
1969	Port Moresby		Fiji	88–3	Papua New Guinea		Solomon Islands	round robin	New Caledonia		[4]
1971	Papeete		Western Samoa	23–9	Cook Islands		Tahiti	14–0	Wallis and Futuna		[5][6] [7]
1979	Suva		Tonga	6–3	Fiji		New Caledonia	9–8	Western Samoa		[8][9]
1983	Apia		Fiji	18–10	Western Samoa		Tonga	70–0	New Caledonia		[10]
1987	Nouméa		New Caledonia	22–9	Cook Islands		Tahiti				[11][12] [13]
1991	Port Moresby		Western Samoa	34–7	American Samoa		Solomon Islands				[14][15]
1995	Papeete		New Caledonia	25–11	Tahiti		Only two teams participated				[16][11] [A]

Medal table

The all-time medal table for rugby at the South Pacific Games, from 1963–95 is collated in the table below.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Fiji	3	1	0	4
2	New Caledonia	2	1	1	4
	Samoa[B]	2	1	1	4
4	Tonga	1	1	1	3
5	Papua New Guinea	1	1	0	2
6	Cook Islands	0	2	0	2
7	Tahiti	0	1	2	3
8	American Samoa	0	1	0	1
9	Solomon Islands	0	0	2	2
10	Vanuatu[C]	0	0	1	1
Totals (10 entries)		9	9	8	26

Pacific Mini Games

Year	Host		Final				Bronze medal match				Ref
			Gold medal	Score	Silver medal		Bronze medal	Score	Fourth place
1985	Rarotonga		Cook Islands	def.	New Caledonia		Tahiti				[17][18] [19]

Medal table

All-time medal table – Pacific Mini Games Rugby

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Cook Islands	1	0	0	1
2	New Caledonia	0	1	0	1
3	Tahiti	0	0	1	1
Totals (3 entries)		1	1	1	3

See also

• Rugby sevens at the Pacific Games
• Rugby union at the Summer Olympics

Notes

1. As reported in Pacific Islands Monthly, Tahiti had agreed to host rugby union for the 1995 games.^[20] Initially it was decided to host 22 sports but 4 others were added (netball, squash, surfing and powerlifting).^[21]
2. Includes medals won as Western Samoa
3. Includes medals won as New Hebrides