The Tonga national rugby sevens team competes in the

World Rugby Sevens Series The World Rugby Men's Sevens Series is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series, the com ...

. Tonga has participated in five

Rugby World Cup Sevens Rugby World Cup Sevens (RWCS) is the quadrennial world championship of rugby sevens, a variant of rugby union. Organised by World Rugby, it currently consists of men's and women's tournaments, and is the highest level of competition in the sport ...

Tournament history

Rugby World Cup Sevens

Tonga's first appearance was at the

1993 Rugby World Cup Sevens The 1993 Rugby World Cup Sevens was held at Murrayfield in Edinburgh, Scotland, in April 1993. This tournament was the inaugural Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament. The International Rugby Board invited the established rugby union nations but als ...

held in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. They finished at the top of their pool and progressed to the finals with four wins and a loss to the hosts. 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 The 1997 Rugby World Cup Sevens was the second edition of the Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament and the first to be held in Hong Kong. It was the last major sporting event to be held in the then British dependency before the transfer of sovereig ...

was held in the mecca of sevens rugby

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. 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 Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and a loss to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. Tonga's pool on Day 2 was a repeat of Day 1 with

and

being pooled together with them. Day 2 yielded the same results as the previous day. They were placed in the Plate quarter-finals and recorded wins against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, the

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

and the hosts,

to win the Plate and finish in ninth place. The 2001 Rugby World Cup Sevens was held in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. Tonga did not qualify.

hosted the Sevens World Cup in 2005 for a second time. Tonga finished at the bottom of their pool and ended up in the Bowl quarter-finals where they defeated

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One-China principle stipulated by th ...

28 – 19. They lost to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in the semi-finals 7 – 0 and finished in their lowest rankings at a

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

in 19th place. Tonga qualified for the 2009 World Cup in the Oceania region. The

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

were the hosts for the

2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens The 2009 Rugby Sevens World Cup was the fifth edition of the Rugby World Cup Sevens. The International Rugby Board (IRB) selected Dubai in the United Arab Emirates as the host venue for the tournament ahead of bids from four other countries. The f ...

. They were in Pool A and played against , and . Tonga were second in their pool with two wins and a loss. They made it to the Plate quarter-finals and beat

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

24 – 7. However, they lost to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in the semis 22 – 19. They finished in eleventh place overall.

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

were the hosts for the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens. Tonga won over Uruguay and advanced to the Plate quarter-finals from their pool. They lost to

26 – 0 and finished in 13th place.

Olympics

Sevens World Series

2008–09 IRB Sevens World Series Tonga have only participated in one round of the current IRB 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 The World Rugby Men's Sevens Series is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series, the comp ...

. 2015 Hong Kong Sevens Tonga played in the World Series Qualifier in the 2015 Hong Kong Sevens. They only managed one win against .

Commonwealth Games

Oceania Sevens

*2008: 2nd *2009: 2nd *2010: 3rd *2011: 3rd *2012: 3rd *2013: Did not compete *2014: 6th *2015: 2nd *2016: 5th *2017: 7th *2018: 5th

Players

Notable players

Malakai Fekitoa Malakai Fonokalafi Fekitoa (born 10 May 1992) is a Tongan rugby union player who plays as a centre. He currently plays for Irish club Munster. He previously played for the Highlanders in the Super Rugby competition, in the ITM Cup, and for ...

(Former

All Black The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...

) *

Cooper Vuna Kerry Cooper Vuna (born 7 May 1987) is a professional rugby footballer who plays on the wing for Newcastle Falcons in Premiership Rugby. He played rugby league as a for the New Zealand Warriors and Newcastle Knights in the National Rugby Leagu ...

(Former

Wallaby A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized Macropodidae, macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same Taxonomy (biology), taxon ...

) *

Jack Ram Jack Ram (born 14 January 1987) is a Tongan professional rugby union footballer. He plays for New England Free Jacks of Major League Rugby (MLR). He represented the Tonga sevens team and Tonga national rugby teams between 2009 and 2015. Ear ...

Lopeti Timani Lopeti Timani (born 28 September 1990) is a Tongan professional rugby union player. His usual position is second row or number 8. After two seasons with the NSW Waratahs in Super Rugby, he signed on to play for the Melbourne Rebels in 2014. H ...

(Former

) * Afusipa Taumoepeau

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tonga national rugby sevens team National rugby sevens teams S