THIS year’s Pacific Cup finals will be held at Parramatta’s CommBank Stadium on Sunday, November 9.
The full schedule for this year’s Pacific Championships has been confirmed, with three-team Cup and Bowl tournaments involving many of the world’s top men’s and women’s sides.
With holders Australia on Ashes duty in England this autumn, the men’s Pacific Cup will involve New Zealand, Samoa and Tonga.
Australia will be strong favourites to win the women’s Pacific Cup, with competition from New Zealand and Samoa.
Auckland’s Go Media Stadium will host the opening double-header between the two New Zealand and Samoa sides on October 19, while the city will also host the last round-robin games on November 2 at Eden Park as Tonga (men) and Australia (women) challenge the hosts.
In between, Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane will play host to Tonga’s clash with Samoa in the men’s competition and, for the women, Australia against Samoa.
The top two sides in each competition will then qualify for the Pacific Cup finals.
Meanwhile, the entire Pacific Bowl tournaments will take place in Papua New Guinea, as Port Moresby’s Santos Stadium hosts three rounds of games.
Cook Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea will contest the men’s Bowl while Tonga join Cook Islands and PNG in the women’s event.
There are no finals in the Pacific Bowl, with the team to finish top of the table after the round-robin games claiming the trophies.
The Cook Islands men’s team will be in action on November 9, however, with their World Cup qualifier against South Africa to be played in Sydney alongside the Pacific Cup finals at CommBank Stadium.
That is one of two play-off matches this autumn which will determine the final two spots at next year’s global gathering, hosted by Australia and Papua New Guinea.
The other takes place two weeks prior, with France facing Jamaica at Stadium Municipal d’Albi on Saturday, October 25.
The winners of those games will join Australia, England, Fiji, Lebanon, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga at the World Cup, which has been reduced from 16 teams in the last edition to ten.
There is only one spot left in the eight-team women’s World Cup, which will be fought for at a World Series in Toronto in October between Canada, Ireland, Nigeria and Fiji.
Pacific Championships 2025 schedule
(All UK time)
Pacific Cup
October 19
Go Media Stadium, Auckland
Women: New Zealand v Samoa (4.00am)
Men: New Zealand v Samoa (6.00am)
October 26
Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Women: Australia v Samoa (3.00am)
Men: Tonga v Samoa (5.00am)
November 2
Eden Park, Auckland
Women: New Zealand v Australia (3.00am)
Men: New Zealand v Tonga (5.00am)
November 9
CommBank Stadium, Sydney
Women: Final (2.35am)
Men: Final (5.05am)
Pacific Bowl
October 18
Santos Stadium, Port Moresby
Women: Papua New Guinea v Cook Islands (4.00am)
Men: Fiji v Cook Islands (6.00am)
October 25
Santos Stadium, Port Moresby
Women: Tonga v Cook Islands (4.00am)
Men: Papua New Guinea v Cook Islands (6.00am)
November 1
Santos Stadium, Port Moresby
Women: Papua New Guinea v Tonga (3.00am)
Men: Papua New Guinea v Fiji (5.00am)