Oceania Rugby Women's Championship

Oceania Rugby Women’s Championship is an international women's rugby union competition contested by women's national teams from Oceania.[1] The current Champions are Samoa who claimed their first Oceania title at the Championship in Australia. Fiji has won the most titles with three.

Oceania Rugby Women's Championship
Upcoming season or competition:
Current sports event 2023 Oceania Rugby Women's Championship
SportRugby union
Founded2016 (2016)
Inaugural season2016
No. of teams4
CountriesFiji
Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Tonga
Most recent
champion(s)		 Samoa
(2023)
Most titles Fiji
(3 titles)
Official websiteoceania.rugby

History

The Oceania Rugby Women's Championship was introduced in 2016, and since its inception, also serves as a Rugby World Cup qualification tournament.

Before the establishment of the Championship there were few international fixtures for women's rugby in the region which hindered its progress. Matches were restricted to occasional test matches as part of the Rugby World Cup qualification process. It was established to provide more regular and consistent international competitions for the region.

The first tournament was held in 2016 in Suva, the match was between Fiji and Papua New Guinea as a part of the Rugby World Cup 2017 qualification. The Fijiana's won and moved onto a Repechage tournament against Hong Kong and Japan.

2018 saw Samoa and Tonga join Fiji and Papua New Guinea in Lautoka. Fiji were the eventual victors.

In 2019, six teams contested the title, with development squads from Australia and New Zealand joining their Pacific neighbours in Lautoka.[2] The Black Ferns Development XV won the 2019 Oceania Championship in Lautoka, Fiji.[3]

The 2020 Championship was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[4] In 2022, Fiji won the Oceania Championship to clinch their third title.[5][6][7]

Samoa created history in winning their first Oceania Championship title and confirmed their place for WXV 2 in the inaugural WXV tournament, Fiji as runners-up qualified for the WXV 3.[8][9]

Champions
Year Venue Teams Winner Runner-up Third Fourth
2016 FijiSuva 2  Fiji  Papua New Guinea — —
2018 FijiLautoka 4  Fiji  Samoa  Tonga  Papua New Guinea
2019 FijiLautoka 6  Black Ferns XV  Australia A  Fiji  Samoa
2020 Not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2021
2022 New ZealandPukekohe 4  Fiji  Samoa  Tonga  Papua New Guinea
2023 AustraliaGold Coast 4  Samoa  Fiji  Tonga  Papua New Guinea

See also

References
  1. Fiji and PNG set for historic qualifier
  2. "Women's Championship - 2019". oceania.rugby. Retrieved 2021-11-20.
  3. "Oceania Rugby Women's Championship 2019: trophy lift". World Rugby. November 2019. Archived from the original on 24 March 2020. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  4. "Oceania Rugby Women's Champs cancelled". FijiTimes. Retrieved 2021-11-29.
  5. "Fijiana win Oceania Rugby Womens Championship in a thriller". oceania.rugby. 2022-07-17. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  6. Deo, Rohit (2022-07-18). "Fijiana 15s win Oceania tournament". FijiTimes. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  7. Krishant, Naveel (2022-07-17). "Fijiana 15's win Oceania Rugby Women's Championship". www.fijivillage.com. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  8. "Cassie Siataga inspires Samoa to first Oceania crown". www.world.rugby. 2023-06-04. Retrieved 2023-06-05.
  9. Cama, Akuila (2023-06-05). "Fijiana 15s falls, Samoa creates history". Fiji Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2023-06-05.
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