Tonga national rugby union team

Rugby was brought to the region in the early 20th century by sailors and missionaries, and the Tonga Rugby Football Union was formed in late 1923. Tonga beat Fiji 9–6 in their first test in 1924 played in the capital Nukuʻalofa. However, Tonga lost the second test 14–3 and drew the decider 0–0.

Between 1924 and 1938 Tonga and Fiji played three test series every alternate year. Matches between the two Pacific nations were hard fought; many have claimed that the ancient feuding wars between the Islanders were transplanted onto the rugby field. Troubles during the third Test of Fiji's 1928 tour to Tonga forced the game to be abandoned with Tonga leading 11–8. In 1954 Tonga played host to a touring Western Samoa.

Tonga beat New Zealand Maori[1] in 1969, but had to wait until 1973 before they played their second test match, a 30–12 defeat against Australia in Sydney. They got their revenge when they beat Australia in Ballymore, Brisbane 16–11, scoring four tries to two in June 1973. The following year they traveled to the Arms Park for a non-cap international against Wales, a game that ended in a 26–7 defeat.

The first Tongan tour to Great Britain was in 1974, when they played 10 games, including those in Wales against East Wales, Llanelli, North Wales, Newport, West Wales and a Wales XV. The only tour victory was by 18–13 in the opener against East Wales. The 'tests' were lost by 44–8 to a Scotland XV and by 26–7 to the Wales XV.

They remained a little-known quantity in Europe until 1986, when Wales embarked on a tour of Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa. Early in the game against Tonga, Welsh flanker Mark Brown was knocked over by three Tongan forwards, leading to a mass brawl involving the entire team except Malcolm Dacey and Mark Titley. Robert Jones describes the event in his book Raising The Dragon as "the worst brawl I have ever seen on a rugby field." At the post-match dinner Jonathan Davies was asked to give a few words in Welsh and as the hosts politely applauded he described them as "the dirtiest team I have ever played against"[2][3]

Tonga were drawn to play Wales again in the inaugural 1987 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand. The previous meeting, plus the decision to rest some of the leading players, led to a poor Welsh performance though they managed to win 29–16. Tonga lost its other two games to Ireland (32–9) and Canada (37–4).

They failed to qualify for the 1991 Rugby World Cup. In 1994 they won the South Pacific championship on try count and so qualified for the Super 10, in which they finished bottom of their pool with only one point.

They qualified for the 1995 World Cup ahead of Fiji on points difference. Tonga managed only two victories in the next two World Cups, against the 29–11 Côte d'Ivoire in 1995 and Italy in 1999. The win over the Côte d'Ivoire brought tragedy when Ivorian winger Max Brito was left paralyzed.

June 1999 brought a 20–16 defeat of France in Nukuʻalofa over a touring France but in 2000 they were defeated 102–0 (including 15 tries) by New Zealand.

After losing their first four matches to Fiji and Samoa, Tonga finished third in the Oceania qualifying group. As a result, they had to play home and away matches against Papua New Guinea, which they won 47–14 and 84–12, followed by a play-off against South Korea, who finished as runners-up in the Asian section. Tonga thrashed them 75–0 and 119–0.

At the 2003 Rugby World Cup Tonga lost all their games and finished bottom of their pool. Although they kept Wales to 20–27, they were again thrashed by New Zealand 91–7.

In 2007 Tonga participated in the 2007 Rugby World Cup, winning two of their pool matches and nearly defeating the eventual champions, South Africa, before losing 30–25.

Tonga achieved one of the most unexpected victories in Rugby World Cup history with their 19–14 win over France in the 2011 World Cup.[4]

On 24 November 2012, Tonga beat Scotland, at Pittodrie Stadium, 21–15 for their first victory over a traditional rugby power on a European pitch.

Like several Pacific rugby nations, Tonga has a pre-game war dance, called the Sipi Tau. It is a form of the Kailao, which was originally a war dance that was imported to Tonga from Wallis Island. It is usually performed at both public and private ceremonies.

During the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia, in Tonga's match against the All Blacks, the All Blacks began their traditional haka, and then Tonga answered to the haka through the sipi tau whilst the All Blacks were performing, bringing the teams within metres of one another just prior to kick-off.[5]

Men's World Rugby Rankings Top 20 as of 15 May 2023[6]
Rank	Change*	Team	Points
1		Ireland	091.82
2		France	090.47
3		New Zealand	088.98
4		South Africa	088.97
5		Scotland	082.77
6		England	082.12
7		Australia	081.80
8		Argentina	080.72
9		Wales	078.08
10		Japan	077.39
11		Georgia	076.23
12		Samoa	076.03
13		Fiji	074.84
14		Italy	074.63
15		Tonga	071.21
16		Portugal	067.62
17		Uruguay	066.24
18		United States	065.92
19		Romania	065.85
20		Spain	064.05
21		Namibia	061.60
22		Chile	060.89
23		Canada	060.46
24		Hong Kong	059.66
25		Russia	058.06
26		Netherlands	055.84
27		Switzerland	055.72
28		Brazil	055.23
29		Belgium	054.58
30		Korea	052.62
* Change from the previous week
Tonga's historical rankings
See or edit source data.
Source: World Rugby[6] Graph updated to 15 May 2023

Below is table of the representative rugby matches played by a Tongan national XV at test level up until 23 July 2022.[7]

Opponent	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	Win %	For	Aga	Diff
Argentina	2	0	2	0	0.00%	28	73	−45
Australia	4	1	3	0	25.00%	42	167	−125
Australia A	3	0	3	0	0.00%	44	189	−145
Canada	9	4	5	0	44.44%	188	216	−28
Chile	2	2	0	0	100.00%	71	40	+31
Cook Islands	4	4	0	0	100.00%	289	32	+257
England	4	0	4	0	0.00%	36	241	−139
England Saxons	1	0	1	0	0.00%	14	41	−27
Fiji	93	27	63	3	29.03%	1237	1845	−608
France	6	2	4	0	33.33%	96	172	−76
French Barbarians	3	2	1	0	67.00%	94	107	-13
Georgia	7	2	5	0	33.33%	141	119	+22
Hong Kong	1	1	0	0	100.00%	44	22	+22
Ireland	2	0	2	0	0.00%	28	72	−44
Italy	5	2	3	0	40.00%	82	154	−72
Ivory Coast	1	1	0	0	100.00%	29	11	+18
Japan	18	9	9	0	50.00%	453	459	−6
Namibia	2	2	0	0	100.00%	55	35	+20
New Caledonia	1	1	0	0	100.00%	58	3	+55
New Zealand	7	0	7	0	0.00%	42	519	−477
Junior All Blacks	3	0	3	0	0.00%	47	124	−74
Māori	12	4	8	0	33.33%	165	319	−154
Papua New Guinea	2	2	0	0	100.00%	131	26	+105
Portugal	1	1	0	0	100.00%	24	19	+5
Romania	4	2	2	0	50.00%	84	87	-3
Samoa	68	27	37	4	39.71%	1019	1257	−238
Scotland	5	1	4	0	20.00%	72	196	−124
Scotland XV	2	0	2	0	0.00%	13	67	−55
Solomon Islands	1	1	0	0	100.00%	92	3	+89
South Korea	6	6	0	0	100.00%	464	66	+398
South Africa	2	0	2	0	0.00%	35	104	−69
Spain	2	2	0	0	100.00%	68	19	+49
Tahiti	1	1	0	0	100.00%	74	0	+74
Uruguay	1	1	0	0	100.00%	43	19	+24
United States	10	9	1	0	88.89%	272	153	+119
Wales	9	0	9	0	0.00%	108	301	−193
Wales XV	1	0	1	0	0.00%	7	26	−19
Zimbabwe	1	1	0	0	100.00%	42	13	+29
Total	299	116	176	7	38.8%	5693	7058	−1365

World Cup record

World Cup record									World Cup Qualification record
Year	Round	P	W	D	L	F	A		P	W	D	L	F	A
1987	Pool Stage	3	0	0	3	29	98		Automatically qualified
1991	did not qualify								3	1	0	2	64	62
1995	Pool Stage	3	1	0	2	44	90		2	1	0	1	34	26
1999	Pool Stage	3	1	0	2	47	171		7	2	0	5	317	241
2003	Pool Stage	4	0	0	4	46	178		8	4	0	4	398	178
2007	Pool Stage	4	2	0	2	89	96		7	3	0	4	329	136
2011	Pool Stage	4	2	0	2	80	98		Automatically qualified
2015	Pool Stage	4	1	0	3	70	130
2019	Pool Stage	4	1	0	3	67	105		4	1	0	3	68	93
2023	qualified								4	2	0	2	126	111
Total	8/9	29	8	0	21	472	966		35	14	0	21	1336	847

Tonga usually wears a home kit consisting of a red shirt, white shorts and red socks and an away kit with the reversed colours. In the 1999 Rugby World Cup, Tonga wore an all-red home kit. Since 2007, Tongan traditional designs, similar to the ones found on the tapa cloths, were incorporated on the jersey design.

Kit manufacturers:

• 1974–1980s Umbro
• 1980s–1999 Canterbury
• 2000–2002 Carisbrook
• 2003–2005 Sekem
• 2005–2008 KooGa
• 2008 Samurai Sportswear^a
• 2008–2010 Aoniu^b
• 2011–2012 KooGa/BLK
• 2012–2015 Kukri
• 2016–2020 Mizuno
• June 2021-November 2021 Siomai Print
• November 2021-present Force XV
• ^a Tonga wore Samurai Sportswear kits in the matches against Maori All Blacks and Japan in 2008
• ^b Tonga wore kits manufactured by the local brand Aoniu in the 2008 end-of-year international tours.

1987–1995 Home

1987–1995 Away

1999 RWC Home

2003 Home

2003 Away

2007 Home

2009 Home

2011 Home

2015 Home

2015 Away

2017 Home

2017 Away

2019 Home

2019 Away

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tonga national rugby union team.

• Tonga national rugby league team
• World Cup
• Pacific Tri-Nations
• Pacific Nations Cup
• 2008 IRB Pacific Nations Cup
• Pacific Islanders rugby union team
• Tonga Rugby Football Union

• Tongan rugby history (from the BBC)
• The good and bad of Tonga (from the BBC)

• Official site
• Tongan rugby union news from Planet Rugby
• Tongan Rugby News
• Details on Rugby WC's squads
• World Cup Preview
• Supporters website of The Pacific Islanders Rugby Team