Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 and WXV 3 2024 qualification will be up for grabs when the Oceania Rugby Women’s Championship gets underway in Brisbane, Australia, on Friday.
Samoa head into the tournament as defending champions having edged Fiji to last year’s title, Cassie Siataga scoring all of her side’s points in a 19-18 victory in the decisive match.
Manusina will again meet Fijiana in the final fixture of the 2024 edition on Sunday, 2 June after they have each played Tonga and Papua New Guinea at Sunnybank Rugby Club in Brisbane.
Whoever finishes top of the standings at the end of the round-robin tournament will secure their place at Women’s RWC 2025 in England.
Due to Samoa finishing sixth in WXV 2 2023, the champions and runners-up will both travel to Dubai to take part in WXV 3 this September and October.
Fijiana’s bid to regain the title they last won in 2022 and seal their place at a second successive Women’s Rugby World Cup will kick-off against Tonga at 17:30 local time (GMT+10) on Friday.
Fiji cannot improve their rating in the World Rugby Women’s Rankings with victory in the opening match due to the 15.52-point gap between the teams.
However, they could drop as low as 19th in the rankings on Monday should they slip up. In that scenario, Tonga would climb above Colombia and Belgium to an all-time high of 25th.
Tonga have lost all four of their previous meetings with Fijiana by an average score of 46-6. Ana Maria Naimasi scored a hat-trick of tries as Fiji ran out 45-12 in last year’s Oceania Rugby Women’s Championship.
Fijiana’s new coach Mosese Rauluni will not take anything for granted in Brisbane but made no secret of his team’s desire to reach another showpiece tournament.
“It’s a very important competition we are going into. Our main objective is to qualify for the World Cup,” Rauluni said.
“Our first big test is against Tonga. The main goal is to win every game; we can’t take any team lightly.
“Tonga is a very strong team. They have a lot of girls playing in New Zealand and Australia, so their time together will be short, but when they play for their country, they will give their all.”
In the second match of the opening day at Sunnybank Rugby Club, Samoa will begin their title defence against Papua New Guinea (kick-off 19:30 local time).
Samoa cannot improve their rating due to the distance between the teams in the rankings. However, they would slip three places – and below Fiji – should they lose to Papua New Guinea for the first time.
An upset victory for Papua New Guinea could lift them as many as seven places and back into the top 50 depending on their winning margin.
Samoa have won all four meetings between the sides to date by an average score of 74-14. Hasting Leiataua and Michelle Curry each scored two of Manusina’s 13 tries as the champions won the corresponding fixture last year 83-0.
Fixtures
Friday, 24 May
17:30 – Fiji v Tonga
19:30 – Samoa v Papua New Guinea
Wednesday, 29 May
17:30 – Fiji v Papua New Guinea
19:30 – Samoa v Tonga
Sunday, 2 June
14:00 – Tonga v Papua New Guinea
16:00 – Samoa v Fiji
