By Priscilla Jepchumba

There are no officials from the Americas among the referee appointments for the 2024 Pacific Nations Cup. The tournament will be played in North America, Oceania and Japan and will feature six teams: Canada, the USA, Japan, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. Referees from Australia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales have been selected by World Rugby.

There will be a total of eleven matches at the 2024 Pacific Nations Cup. Three matches will be refereed by Australian referees, as well as New Zealand referees. The remaining five matches will be officiated by officials from Ireland, Italy, Japan, Scotland and Wales.

Two matches will be played in North America. Irishman Eoghan Cross will referee the Canada vs. Japan match in Vancouver and Italian Gianluca Gnecchi will referee the USA vs. Canada match in Los Angeles. The final and the final for 5th place in Japan will be refereed by Australian Nic Berry.

When appointing referees, the focus was on the 2027 Rugby World Cup and the 2024 Rugby Championship to prepare referees for the next Rugby World Cup.

World Rugby’s policy of promoting referees from a limited number of countries has resulted in no American officials being represented at the 2024 Pacific Nations Cup and Rugby Championship tournaments.

No American referee has been appointed for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, continuing a trend from previous tournaments. New Zealander Paul Williams was chosen to referee the second semi-final of the Pacific Nations Cup, having previously officiated the Argentina-Chile match at the 2023 Rugby World Cup entirely in English. In addition, a match between Argentina and Uruguay last July was also not refereed in Spanish.

Except for the 2027 Rugby World Cup, no American officials have been used as referees in previous tournaments such as 2019, 2015, 2011 and 2007.

This year’s Pacific Nations Cup will be played in a new round-robin format with two pools and a grand final to determine the overall winner.

Group A includes Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, while Group B consists of Canada, Japan and the USA. Each team has one home and one away game during the group stage.

To determine the champion, a finals series was introduced this year, with the top two teams from each group moving on to the semi-finals. The winners of these matches will compete in the grand final, while the losing teams will play for third place.

Simon Raiwalui, Player Development Manager at World Rugby, expressed confidence that the games will improve teams’ preparation in the long term.

“The six teams participating in the competition will benefit from long-term planning security,” said Raiwalui, “… which will enable them to optimise their preparations and engage with fans and commercial partners,” he added.

On September 14, the bottom two teams in each group will play in a match for fifth place, which will take place at the same time as the first semi-final. The second semi-final will take place a day later at the same venue, Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium.