World Rugby has announced a new annual men’s 15s competition involving Fiji, Canada, Japan, Samoa, Tonga and the USA that will be launched in 2024, reaffirming World Rugby’s commitment to increasing global competitiveness on the road to Rugby World Cups in Australia (2027) and USA (2031).
Approved by the international federation’s Council, the rebranded Pacific Nations Cup, which will be played in the southern hemisphere release window of August and September, will feature two pools of three teams – a North America/Japan pool and a Pacific Islands pool with each union hosting matches.
A finals series involving all teams will take place each year, where the annual champions will be confirmed.
Japan and USA will host the finals series in alternate years, starting with Japan in 2024.
Backed by significant World Rugby investment and union support, each union will play a minimum of three additional matches a year via the new competition, delivering important certainty for each union in order to optimise commercial and performance returns, including ticket and sponsorship revenue and domestic broadcast.
World Rugby Chairman Sir Bill Beaumont says this new Pacific Nations Cup competition helps address the need to reshape the global calendar to deliver greater opportunity, certainty and equity.
He says by 2026, these teams will have unprecedented high-level competition access.
