World Rugby Americas Pacific Challenge

The Americas Pacific Challenge (APC) is a rugby union tournament funded by World Rugby [1] that serves as a development competition for Americas and Pacific island nations. It provides a way to prepare players for participation with their senior national men's teams during international tests [2] and in the Rugby World Cup qualification cycle.[3]

Americas Pacific Challenge
Most recent season or competition:
2021 World Rugby Americas Pacific Challenge
SportRugby Union
Inaugural season2016
Countries
Most recent
champion(s)		 Argentina XV (2021)
Most titles Argentina XV (3)

The competition has been hosted by the Uruguayan Rugby Union since 2016, with all games played in Montevideo.[1] Prior to its creation, two teams from the Americas had played in the Pacific Challenge, hosted by Fiji in 2015.[4] This was reversed in 2016 with two Pacific Island teams joining the inaugural APC [5] which effectively replaced the previous format of the Americas Rugby Championship.[6]

History

The APC was first contested in October 2016 by the national 'A' teams of Argentina, Canada, Fiji, Samoa, Uruguay and United States.[7] Tonga took the place of the Fijian team for the 2017 competition,[8] and retained that place in 2018.[9]

The competition had a two-year hiatus which encompassed the 2019 Rugby World Cup and a 2020 season disrupted by impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Teams from Brazil, Chile and Paraguay took part for the first time in the 2021 Challenge, but the Pacific Islands did not participate due to difficulties with COVID-19 travel logistics.[10]

Format

The Americas Pacific Challenge uses a split pool format wherein the six competing teams are divided into two pools of three.[11] Each team plays one match against each of the teams in the opposite pool.[11] The tournament's winner is decided based upon the number of points accumulated from each match.[11]

Participating teams

The final placings of all teams for each year are recorded in the table below as numbers (where 1 denotes first place, 2 denotes second, etc). The host nation's placing is shown in bold. A dash (–) is recorded in the year column if a team did not compete at a tournament.


Year
Nation
 2016 2017 2018 2021 Years
played
North America
 Canada A 665– 3
 USA Selects 5265 4
South America
 Argentina XV 1121 4
 Brazil A –––3 1
 Chile A –––2 1
 Paraguay A –––6 1
 Uruguay A 4534 4
Pacific teams
 Fiji Warriors 2––– 1
 Samoa A 341– 3
 Tonga A –34– 2
Number of teams
All time total: 10		 6666 4
Editions

Winners
Year # of
Teams		 Winner Runner-up Venue
2016 6  Argentina XV  Fiji Warriors Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo
2017 6  Argentina XV  USA Selects Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo
2018 6  Samoa A  Argentina XV Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo
2021 6  Argentina XV  Chile A Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo

See also

References
  1. "Americas Pacific Challenge set for October kick-off in Uruguay". World Rugby. July 9, 2016. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  2. "Uruguay 'A' beats Canada 'A' at World Rugby Americas Pacific Challenge". TSN. Montevideo, Uruguay. The Canadian Press. October 6, 2018. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  3. Rowe, James (September 20, 2018). "USA Selects Americas Pacific Challenge Roster Announced". The Runner Sports. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  4. "Rugby World Cup places on offer in Pacific Challenge". Radio New Zealand. March 10, 2016. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
  5. "Americas Pacific Challenge – Round 3 Preview". Americas Rugby News. October 15, 2016. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
  6. "World Rugby confirms Americas Pacific Challenge". Americas Rugby News. September 7, 2016. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  7. "2016 Americas Pacific Challenge". Americas Rugby News. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  8. "2017 Americas Pacific Challenge". Americas Rugby News. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  9. "2018 Americas Pacific Challenge". Americas Rugby News. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
  10. "Americas Pacific Challenge – Round 1 Preview". Americas Rugby News. October 22, 2021. Archived from the original on October 22, 2021.
  11. "World Rugby Americas Pacific Challenge 2018 Match Schedule Announced". USA Rugby. August 22, 2018. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
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