Sport in Tonga - Rugby Union

Rugby Union

Rugby union is the national sport in Tonga. Rugby union is governed by the Tonga Rugby Football Union, which is also a member of the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance.

Rugby union is popular in the nation's schools and students from schools such as Tupou College are regularly offered scholarships from New Zealand, Australia and Japan. Though Tongans are passionate rugby followers, the small population base means that internationally, Tongan rugby continually struggles. Often, young talent emigrate to countries which offer greater prospects of individual success such as New Zealand and Australia.

The Tonga national rugby union team (Ikale Tahi) has performed quite well on the international stage. they usually play as good as the neighboring islands Samoa and Fiji, Tonga competed at the Rugby World Cup five times, the first being in 1987. The team achieved its best-ever performance in the 2007 Rugby World Cup and the 2011 world cup, winning two matches against the USA and Samoa before losing narrowly to South Africa, they also had a great 2011 world cup coming third for the second world cup in a row with victory's over Japan and a great victory over France. they had an automatic qualification into the 2011 world cup unlike Samoa who had to qualify after a disappointing 2007 world cup coming fourth in pool a.

Tonga performs the Sipi Tau (war dance) before its matches. Tonga used to compete in the Pacific Tri-Nations, against Samoa and Fiji, which has now been replaced by the IRB Pacific Six Nations involving Japan as well as the second string All Blacks (Junior All Blacks) and Wallabies (Australia A). At the club level, there are the Datec Cup Provincial Championship and the Pacific Rugby Cup.

Tonga contributes to the Pacific Islanders rugby union team. Jonah Lomu, Viliami (William) 'Ofahengaue and George Smith are all of Tongan descent.