World Rugby confirms Americas Pacific Challenge

World Rugby have confirmed that a new international competition – dubbed the Americas Pacific Challenge – will take place in October for six senior ‘A’ teams. Each team will three matches with all games set to take place at Estadio Charrúa in Montevideo, the high performance home of the Uruguayan Rugby Union. The tournament will be funded in its entirety by World Rugby.

The tournament effectively replaces two older competitions, the Americas Rugby Championship and the Pacific Challenge. Both, of course, are still in existence but have been significantly altered. The ARC is now a yearly recurring event taking place in February and March with full test status, while the Pacific Challenge is now contested by the senior ‘A’ teams of Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, and Japan in March.

Two groups of three will comprise the new APC. Argentina, USA, and Samoa in the first bracket with Canada, Fiji, and hosts Uruguay in the second. Each team will play one match against each of the opposite bracket. Similar to the old ARC, the three matches will be played in the space of just eight days, played on Saturday, Wednesday, and Sunday from October 8-16.

With teams expected to be almost entirely domestic-based, it will give fringe senior players a chance to enhance their claims and push for a spot in the senior side for the November international window. The additional matches will be particularly welcome for the USA and Uruguay, neither of whom have had regular ‘A’ level competition since the 2014 ARC. As all teams are considered the ‘next senior side’ in accordance with World Rugby regulations, all matches will be binding in terms of international eligibility.

2016 AMERICAS PACIFIC CHALLENGE

(all times local Montevideo)