Pacific Championship 2024 (Men's)

The Pacific Cup and Bowl tournaments have six sides competing (with Samoa away in England). We will look at each separately.

Cup: Australia were favourites although the NZ side was expected to give them a run for their money and Tonga competitive and not to be ruled out. As things transpired, the Kangaroos won both the pool matches but had to work hard in the process. 

It came down to the other two as to who would join them in the final. The highlights are above if you want to watch them before knowing the score.

Tonga came out and led 24-0 just before half time. The Kiwis then took over and came back to draw level but in the end Tonga showed more composure in slotting home the winning field goal while the Kiwis kept missing their attempts. 

The final placings has Australia and Tonga going into the final while NZ takes on the winner of the Bowl group. 

Bowl: PNG were the team tipped to win this division and that's what happened. Fiji was a stern test though. Then Fiji overwhelmed the Cook Is team, the latter started well against PNG but couldn't sustain their effort.

The final placings are shown below. PNG earned a crack at the Kiwis which is a challenge against a side smarting from not making the Cup final as was expected. 

The match between NZ and PNG decided who would be in the Cup competition next time. It put the third ranked Cup side (NZ) up against the winners of the Bowl competition (PNG). 

A tight first half where PNG struggled to turn effort into points was punished by the Kiwis who went ahead at the break 22-6 with two late tries. NZ turned it up in the second half and ran away with it.

In the grand final, Australia lived up to their favourites tag by leading 14-4 at the turn around but had to defend well to take the trophy. Tonga showed they deserved to be in the final but breaking down a resolute defence was a tough ask.