Tonga

RLIF CEO Nigel Wood confirmed on the eve of Saturday’s opening round of Oceania Cup matches between New Zealand and Tonga at Mt Smart Stadium and Samoa and Papua New Guinea at Leichhardt Oval that the international body wanted to play games in the Pacific islands.

An RLIF meeting in Singapore earlier this month agreed that the Oceania Cup would be staged mid-year and at the end of the season on an annual basis, except in 2021 and 2025 when the World Cup is held.

The start of the next Top 14 season is set to coincide with the duration of the World Cup, which starts on 20 September with the final set to be held on 2 November.

World Rugby’s regulation nine states that clubs have to release their players to their respective nations for official Test matches, which includes the World Cup.

However, Samoa coach Steve Jackson has reportedly already had a number of his players tell him that they have had to make themselves unavailable for the showpiece tournament.

Conducted by Football Federation Samoa, the draw used seedings based on FIFA rankings.

In the men's event, six teams had been set to be placed in Group A and five in Group B but due to an mistake on the day, five teams were drawn for Group A and six for Group B.

To rectify this, a straight swap was carried out in the match schedules between the groups.

Group A features hosts Samoa, Tonga, New Zealand under-23s, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.

New Caledonia are the top seeds in Group B, alongside American Samoa, Tuvalu, Tahiti, Fiji and Solomon Islands.

The veteran halves are in a 19-strong group announced by coach Michael Maguire, with regular five-eighth Kodi Nikorima having been ruled out of contention by the Warriors.

Maguire confirmed Dallin Watene-Zelezniak will retain the captaincy, even though a shift to the wing or centres looms following the return to availability of star fullback Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, who missed all of last year's five Tests.

Veteran hooker Issac Luke is in the group of eight players cut from the 27-man group unveiled midweek ahead of Saturday's clash in Auckland.

World Rugby's regulation nine states clubs must release their players for test rugby, including World Cups.

The French Top 14 season will run through the duration of the Rugby World Cup, starting in September this year.

Clubs can't publicly insist their players from Pacific Island nations don't go to Japan but there have been previous instances where it has been made clear to internationals that their future employment is at risk if they choose country before club.

Athletes, officials, spectators, volunteers, and the workforce involved in the Games are reminded that the event is smokefree.

May 31, which is just 37 days until the Opening Ceremony kicks off a fortnight of sporting competition, is the annual No Tobacco Day organised by the World Health Organization.

The annual campaign raises awareness of the harmful and deadly effects of tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure, and aims to discourage the use of tobacco in any form.

Steeve Laigle, President of Fédération Calédonienne de Football was at hand to assist OFC Competitions Director Chris Kemp at the OFC Academy in Auckland during the Draw which was witnessed by a number of Executive Committee Members as well as OFC President Lambert Maltock.

Defending champions and top seeded Solomon Islands and second ranked New Zealand were placed into different pots to ensure they don’t face each other during the group stages with the two bottom ranked sides American Samoa and Tonga also separated for the same reason.

The women’s congress invites delegates from across 10 countries including officials in the Pacific including, Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon islands, Samoa, Kiribati, Nauru, American Samoa, Niue, Tuvalu and the hosting country, Tonga.

The congress is expected to run for 5 days until the final day on the 22nd April.

Digicel proudly support the Seventh-Days Adventist church Women’s Congress from all across the Pacific with free visitor sims equipped with free bundles for delegates to use during their time of visit in the Kingdom.

The ballot, open to citizens of Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Kiribati and Tuvalu takes place between 1 and 30 April.

Each year up to 1100 Samoan citizens, 250 Tongan and Fijian citizens and 75 Kiribati and Tuvaluan citizens are selected by ballot to be considered for residence in New Zealand.

Eligible citizens of these five countries need to be aged between 18 and 45.

After selection, the registrants will then have eight months to lodge their resident visa applications.

They must also be able to indicate they have an acceptable job offer from a New Zealand employer.

The office will serve as a regional hub for the development institution’s work across the region.

The new regional hub will be integral to the World Bank Group’s delivery of more than one billion Fiji dollars’ worth of projects across six countries (Fiji, Nauru, Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu) in a wide range of sectors including transport, aviation, information and communications technology, education, disaster resilience, fisheries, health and education, among others.