The 2011 Pacific Nations Cup was a

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

tournament held between the four national sides on the Pacific Rim:

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

and

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

was the reigning champion after they defeated

in the 2010 competition at Apia Park. The tournament began on July 2 and ended on July 13, 2011 with most of the matches hosted by

. Only the match between Asian 5 Nations champion,

and

was played at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium in

. The tournament was moved to Fiji from Japan after the devastating March, 2011 Japan Tsunami. The tournament was a round-robin where each team plays all of the other teams once. There were four points for a win, two for a draw and none for a defeat. There were also bonus points offered with one bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match and one bonus point for losing by 7 points or less. Japan were crowned Champions after defeating Fiji and scoring their fourth try the last play of the final match of the tournament giving them the bonus point they needed to go with an earlier win over Tonga.irb.com
''Instead, by virtue of a slender 28-27 victory over Tonga, it was the Japanese who got their hands on the trophy'' Ill discipline by Fiji cost them the game and gifted the Pacific Nations Cup to Japan at the expense of Tonga. Fiji finished the match with 12 men after conceding 2 red and 3 yellow cards, an unenviable world record.

Table

Schedule

Round 1

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Round 2

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Round 3

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Top scorers

Top points scorers

Source:''

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Top try scorers

Source:''

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References

External links

IRB Pacific Nations Cup
– from the IRB website (June 6, 2011)
Schedule
* (ESPN Rugby stat

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pacific

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

2011 rugby union tournaments for national teams 2011 in Oceanian rugby union 2011 in Fijian rugby union 2010–11 in Japanese rugby union 2011 in Samoan rugby union 2011 in Tongan rugby union