Wikipedia

Tonga national rugby sevens team

This article is about the men's team. For the women's team, see Tonga women's national rugby sevens team.

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.

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
Appearances7 (First in 1993)
Best result7th (1993)
Team Tonga at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

World Rugby Sevens Series

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See also: 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.

Stages Team Pts Team
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

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Tonga have participated in the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series, the competition to gain promotion to the World Rugby Sevens Series. They finished 6th in 2020 and 7th in 2022, failing to gain promotion.

Tonga finished first in the 2023 Challenger Series, thereby gaining entry to the London Sevens core team qualifier for the 2023–24 season.[2] They also competed in the 2024 Challenger Series; the first round was held in Dubai where they finished sixth.[3][4] They ended the Challenger Series in seventh place overall.[5]

Tournament history

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Rugby World Cup Sevens

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World Cup record
Year Round Position Pld W L D
  1993 Quarterfinalists 7th 8 4 4 0
  1997 Plate Winners 9th 7 5 2 0
  2001 Did not qualify
  2005 Bowl Semifinalists 19th 6 2 5 0
  2009 Plate Semifinalists 11th 5 3 2 0
  2013 Plate Quarterfinalists 13th 4 1 3 0
  2018 21st Place Final 22nd 4 1 3 0
  2022 19th Place Final 20th 4 1 3 0
Total 0 Titles 7/8 38 17 22 0

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.[6] 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.[7]

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[8] 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.[9] 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.[10] They lost to Canada 26 – 0 and finished in 13th place.

Olympics

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Olympic Games record
Year Round Position Pld W L D
  2016 Did not qualify
  2020 Did not qualify
  2024 To be determined
Total 0/0 0 0 0 0

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

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Commonwealth Games record
Year Round Position Pld W L D
  1998 Plate Semifinalists 11th 6 3 3 0
  2002 Bowl Finalists 10th 6 3 3 0
  2006 Bowl Finalists 10th 6 3 3 0
  2010 Bowl Semifinalists 11th 5 2 3 0
  2014 Did not qualify
  2018
  2022 9th–12th Place Semi-finals =11th 5 2 3 0
Total 0 Titles 5/7 28 13 15 0

Pacific Games

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Pacific Games
Year Round Position Pld W D L
  1999 Did Not Compete
  2003 Bronze Final 4th 6 2 0 4
  2007 Did Not Compete
  2011
  2015 Bronze Final   7 5 0 2
  2019 Bronze Final   5 4 1 0
  2023 Bronze Final   5 4 0 1
Total 0 Titles 4/7 23 15 1 7

Oceania Sevens

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Oceania Sevens
Year Round Position Pld W D L
  2008 Cup Final   5 4 0 1
  2009 Cup Final   8 6 0 2
  2010 Bronze Final   6 4 0 2
  2011 Bronze Final   7 4 1 2
  2012 Bronze Final   6 3 0 3
  2013 Did Not Compete
  2014 Plate Final 6th 6 2 0 4
  2015 Cup Final   6 4 0 2
  2016 5th Place Playoff 5th 6 4 0 2
  2017 — [a] 7th 4 1 0 3
  2018 5th Place Playoff 5th 6 4 0 2
  2019 5th Place Playoff 5th 5 4 0 1
  2021 Did Not Compete
  2022 Round-robin 4th 6 0 0 6
  2022 Round-robin   5 0 0 5
  2023 5th Place Playoff 5th 5 4 0 1
Total 0 Titles 14/16 81 44 1 36

Players

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Squad for the 2024 World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series in Dubai.[11]

No. Players
1 Sione Tupou
3 Siaosi Huihui
4 Semisi Ma'asi
6 Tevita Eukaliti
7 Sioeli Filimoehala
9 John Ika
10 Atieli Pakalani
20 Sione Lemek
22 Tali Finau
29 Potolaka Ma'ake
73 Walter Fifita
77 Bray Taumoefolau

Notable players

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Notes

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  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

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  1. ^ worldrugby.org (23 January 2015). "Teams confirmed for Hong Kong Sevens". Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  2. ^ "Tonga 7s qualifies for HSBC Sevens Series in London". Matangi Tonga. 2 May 2023. Archived from the original on 17 May 2023.
  3. ^ "Sevens captains ready for the challenge in Dubai". www.world.rugby. 2024-01-10. Retrieved 2024-01-17.
  4. ^ "China and Kenya celebrate Challenger 2024 success in Dubai". www.world.rugby. 2024-01-14. Retrieved 2024-01-17.
  5. ^ "Uruguay, Kenya, Chile and Germany qualify for men's HSBC SVNS Play-Off in Madrid". www.world.rugby. 2024-05-19. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
  6. ^ World Rugby.org. "1993 Rugby World Cup Sevens". Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  7. ^ World Rugby.org. "1997 Rugby World Cup Sevens". Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  8. ^ World Rugby.org. "2005 Rugby World Cup Sevens". Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  9. ^ World Rugby.org. "2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens". Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  10. ^ World Rugby.org. "2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens". Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  11. ^ "2024 World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series squad list" (PDF). World Rugby. p. 10. Retrieved 2024-01-17.
  12. ^ "Malakai Fekitoa to captain Tonga 7s". RNZ. 2021-06-18. Retrieved 2021-10-21.
  13. ^ "Samoa, Tonga fail to qualify for Olympic sevens". 1News. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
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