Tonga
UnionTonga Rugby Football Union
Nickname(s)'Ikale Tahi
Coach(es)Tevita Tu'ifua
Captain(s)Fautasi Mau
Team kit
Change kit
World Cup Sevens
Appearances5 (First in 1993)
Best result7th (1993)
Team Tonga at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

The Tonga national rugby sevens team competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series. Tonga has participated in all but one of the Rugby World Cup Sevens tournaments.

World Rugby Sevens Series

2008–09 IRB Sevens World Series

Tonga have participated in only a few rounds of the World Rugby Sevens Series so far. They managed the bowl final in their first round of this series in Wellington, they won 24–56 over Cook Islands.

2009 Wellington Sevens

Tonga were in pool "A" along with Scotland, South Africa and Kenya for the Wellington round of the IRB World Sevens Series.

StagesTeamPtsTeam
1 Kenya 21–35 Tonga
2 South Africa 22–65 Tonga
3 Scotland 15–21 Tonga
1/4 final bowl Niue 0–21 Tonga
Semi-final bowl France 5–28 Tonga
Final bowl Cook Islands 24–56 Tonga

2015 Hong Kong Sevens

Tonga played in the World Series Qualifier in the 2015 Hong Kong Sevens. They only managed one win against Guyana 7s.[1]

Challenger Series

Tonga have participated in the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series, the competition to gain promotion to the World Rugby Sevens Series. Tonga finished 6th in 2020 and 7th in 2022, failing to gain promotion. Tonga finished first in the 2023 Challenger Series, thereby gaining promotion to “core team” status for next season’s World Series.

Tournament history

Rugby World Cup Sevens

World Cup record
Year Round Position Pld W L D
Scotland 1993 Quarterfinalists 7th 8 4 4 0
Hong Kong 1997 Plate Winners 9th 7 5 2 0
Argentina 2001 Did not qualify
Hong Kong 2005 Bowl Semifinalists 19th 6 2 5 0
United Arab Emirates 2009 Plate Semifinalists 11th 5 3 2 0
Russia 2013 Plate Quarterfinalists 13th 4 1 3 0
United States 2018 21st Place Final22nd4130
South Africa 2022 19th Place Final 20th 4 1 3 0
Total0 Titles7/83817220

Tonga's first appearance was at the 1993 Rugby World Cup Sevens held in Scotland. They finished at the top of their pool and progressed to the finals with four wins and a loss to the hosts.[2] The quarter finals were another round robin with teams split into two pools. Tonga lost all their games and finished in seventh place overall.

The 1997 Rugby World Cup Sevens was held in the mecca of sevens rugby Hong Kong. The tournament was played over three days. Day 1 and 2 had a total of eight pools with three teams per pool. Teams were seeded at the end of Day 1 and assigned to their various pools for Day 2. Tonga had a win against Japan and a loss to New Zealand.[3]

Tonga's pool on Day 2 was a repeat of Day 1 with Japan and New Zealand being pooled together with them. Day 2 yielded the same results as the previous day. They were placed in the Plate quarterfinals and recorded wins against Wales, the Cook Islands and the hosts, Hong Kong to win the Plate and finish in ninth place.

The 2001 Rugby World Cup Sevens was held in Argentina. Tonga did not qualify.

Hong Kong hosted the Sevens World Cup in 2005 for a second time. Tonga finished at the bottom of their pool[4] and ended up in the Bowl quarterfinals where they defeated Chinese Taipei 28 – 19. They lost to Canada in the semi-finals 7 – 0 and finished in their lowest rankings at a World Cup in 19th place.

Tonga qualified for the 2009 World Cup in the Oceania region. The United Arab Emirates were the hosts for the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens. They were in Pool A and played against Arabian Gulf 7s, Italy 7s and New Zealand 7s. Tonga were second in their pool with two wins and a loss.[5] They made it to the Plate quarterfinals and beat Tunisia 24 – 7. However, they lost to Australia in the semis 22 – 19. They finished in eleventh place overall.

Russia were the hosts for the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens. Tonga won over Uruguay and advanced to the Plate quarterfinals from their pool.[6] They lost to Canada 26 – 0 and finished in 13th place.

Olympics

Olympic Games record
Year Round Position Pld W L D
Brazil 2016 Did not qualify
Japan 2020 Did not qualify
France 2024 To be determined
Total0/00000

Tonga finished second behind Australia at the 2015 Oceania Sevens Championship, and thus failed to advance to the 2016 Summer Olympics. Tonga also played in the 2019 Oceania Sevens Championship, but failed to qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Commonwealth Games

Commonwealth Games record
Year Round Position Pld W L D
Malaysia 1998 Plate Semifinalists 11th 6 3 3 0
England 2002 Bowl Finalists 10th 6 3 3 0
Australia 2006 Bowl Finalists 10th 6 3 3 0
India 2010 Bowl Semifinalists 11th 5 2 3 0
Scotland 2014 Did not qualify
Australia 2018
England 2022 9th–12th Place Semi-finals =11th 5 2 3 0
Total0 Titles5/72813150

Pacific Games

Pacific Games
Year Round Position Pld W D L
Guam 1999 Did Not Compete
Fiji 2003 Bronze Final 4th 6 2 0 4
Samoa 2007 Did Not Compete
New Caledonia 2011
Papua New Guinea 2015 Bronze Final 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 7 5 0 2
Samoa 2019 Bronze Final 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 5 4 1 0
Solomon Islands 2023 Bronze Final 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 5 4 0 1
Total 0 Titles 4/7 23 15 1 7

Oceania Sevens

Oceania Sevens
Year Round Position Pld W D L
Samoa 2008 Cup Final 2nd place, silver medalist(s) 5 4 0 1
French Polynesia 2009 Cup Final 2nd place, silver medalist(s) 8 6 0 2
Australia 2010 Bronze Final 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 6 4 0 2
Samoa 2011 Bronze Final 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 7 4 1 2
Australia 2012 Bronze Final 3rd place, bronze medalist(s) 6 3 0 3
Fiji 2013 Did Not Compete
Australia 2014 Plate Final 6th 6 2 0 4
New Zealand 2015 Cup Final 2nd place, silver medalist(s) 6 4 0 2
Fiji 2016 5th Place Playoff 5th 6 4 0 2
Fiji 2017 — [lower-alpha 1] 7th 4 1 0 3
Fiji 2018 5th Place Playoff 5th 6 4 0 2
Fiji 2019 5th Place Playoff 5th 5 4 0 1
Australia 2021 Did Not Compete
New Zealand 2022 Round-robin 4th 6 0 0 6
New Zealand 2022 Round-robin 1st place, gold medalist(s) 5 0 0 5
Australia 2023 5th Place Playoff 5th 5 4 0 1
Total 0 Titles 14/16 81 44 1 36

Players

Squad to the 2023 Pacific Games in Honiara, Solomon Islands:

Players
William Pythagoras Helu
Gordon Kava
Ngase Ata Maile
Lemisio Moala
Kiunga Ofahulu
Netaleni Taufaeteau
Sione Taufeulungaki
Taniela Tuipulotu
Siaosi Kenitini Vakapuna

Notable players

Notes

  1. ↑ Due to adverse weather conditions affecting the schedule of games, all classification finals except the fifth-place playoff and Championship Final were cancelled. The fifth-place match was played because of qualification implications.

References

  1. ↑ worldrugby.org (23 January 2015). "Teams confirmed for Hong Kong Sevens". Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  2. ↑ World Rugby.org. "1993 Rugby World Cup Sevens". Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  3. ↑ World Rugby.org. "1997 Rugby World Cup Sevens". Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  4. ↑ World Rugby.org. "2005 Rugby World Cup Sevens". Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  5. ↑ World Rugby.org. "2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens". Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  6. ↑ World Rugby.org. "2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens". Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  7. ↑ "Malakai Fekitoa to captain Tonga 7s". RNZ. 2021-06-18. Retrieved 2021-10-21.
  8. ↑ "Samoa, Tonga fail to qualify for Olympic sevens". 1 News. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
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