Canada and USA to join Pacific Nations Cup [1]
Thursday, January 24, 2013 - 18:52. Updated on Monday, September 9, 2013 - 18:40.
A new structure of the annual International Rugby Board (IRB) Pacific Nations Cup competition was announced by the IRB on 22 January.
For the 2013 IRB Pacific Nations Cup competition Canada and the USA will participate, but the Manu Samoa, the 2012 champion will be excluded.
The IRB Head of Development and Performance, Mark Egan, said that the expansion was part of its long-term commitment to boosting the competitiveness of two tier nations. “The IRB has a long term commitment through our strategic plan to create greater levels of quality test game competition for tier two nations in order to boost the competitiveness of the world game.”
The rugby tournament was originally established in 2006 providing a tight and entertaining competition between Pacific Island nations Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and Japan.
The exclusion of the reigning champion of the 2012 PNC competition was to enable the Manu Samoa to play Italy, Scotland and the Springboks in June.
Mana 'Otai, the head coach of the Tongan national team, the 'Ikale Tahi believed that the inclusion of Canada and the USA would be a booster to rugby in the Pacific, though he did not fully understand why the Manu Samoa was excluded from the 2013 PNC Competition.
"We beat the USA late last year, but they are developing fast," he said.
"The logistics will be a challenge for the 'Ikale Tahi, because both of our games against Canada and the USA will be home games for them, so there will be a lot of travelling.
"The rest of the games will be in Japan, so we will be based in Japan for the whole competition," said Mana.
The 2013 PNC competition will run from May 25 to June 25.
Team selection
Mana said that the selection process for a team for the 2013 PNC "is still in the thinking stage", but one possibility is the selection of players not from the Heineken Cup level but from the next level up. "Simply because we want to give some of our more experienced players a break, we have to be careful not to get them burnt-out.
"We want to build up a pool of international players, in preparation for the 2015 Rugby World Cup."
Mana said that part of its preparation for 2015, a Tongan XV will play against the Western Force in Meadow Springs sporting ground, Perth, on 8 February. He said that the Tonga XV team would be selected from Tongan players in Australia "who are playing in the Super Rugby level, but were not selected to play Super Rugby this season. This is also part of our preparation for 2015."
The USA Rugby Chief Executive, Nigel Melville, was excited with the inclusion of USA in the PNC, he said that the “USA Rugby is delighted to be given the opportunity to compete in the IRB Pacific Nations Cup. The new look PNC will provide the Eagles with consistent fixtures against some very competitive teams”.
The Canada Rugby Chief Executive Graham Melville was equally pleased “This is a fantastic opportunity for Canada to play quality matches to help us build our high performance programme.”