Utah will host the Pacific Nations Cup rugby tournament finals in September.
The news was announced at a press conference Wednesday at America First Field in Sandy, where the matches will be held.
“This is an amazing time for USA Rugby and rugby across the U.S.,” Bill Goren, CEO of USA Rugby, said.
What to know about the 2025 Pacific Nations Cup
The Pacific Nations Cup pits six countries — Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Canada, Japan and the United States — against one another in what is the third-largest annual international rugby tournament, World Rugby’s Mick Hogan explained.
“I’m really excited about the momentum that rugby has taken. For all those that want to know, the best football players have a rugby background. They have it in their bloodline. It’s part of their lineage.”
— BYU football coach Kalani Sitake
The teams will be competing for a spot in the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.
Ahead of the finals, each team will play two matches, and one of those will occur in each team’s home country. The U.S. will host Japan in Sacramento on Sept. 8 before the knockout rounds.
This year marks the first time the final series of matches will take place in the U.S. The semifinals will be in Denver on Sept. 14 and the final and third-place matches will be in Salt Lake City on Sept. 20.
“We have a whole lot of time to get Utah on board. I know that this stadium is going to be filled to capacity because that’s what rugby is,” Rep. Verona Mauga, D-Salt Lake County, said. “PNC in Utah and the United States is such a big deal, not just for rugby, but for families and for what we can do as a community.”
Count BYU football head coach Kalani Sitake as one of the rugby fans excited for the Pacific Nations Cup to come to Utah.
Sitake spoke at Wednesday’s press conference and shared how his father played rugby in Tonga, Fiji and Samoa.
“Rugby was always the stable thing in our life,” he said.
Growing up, Sitake enjoyed hearing his father tell stories of his rugby-playing days.
When the family moved to Utah, Sitake’s father had him train alongside the Provo Steelers rugby team, telling him, “Let’s go train with the real guys.”
“I’m really excited about the momentum that rugby has taken. For all those that want to know, the best football players have a rugby background. They have it in their bloodline. It’s part of their lineage, and so, pick up a rugby ball, go and play,” Sitake said.
Growing the game of rugby in the U.S.
Many Americans experienced the joy of rugby for the first time during the 2024 Paris Olympics, where the U.S. women’s rugby sevens team took home the bronze medal — it was the U.S.’s first Olympic rugby medal in 100 years.
Utah’s very own Alex “Spiff” Sedrick scored the medal-winning try.
The fanfare around the team and rugby has yet to fade. Last Friday, the women’s team broke the attendance record for a women’s rugby match held on U.S. soil with 10,518 fans in the stands.
“We come off a great Olympics, and we’re rolling into an exciting time. Our next Olympics is on American soil. So we’ll have the opportunity to show our game here in the U.S. and really see the opportunity to grow,” Goren said.
The sport will continue to have opportunities to shine in the U.S. in the coming decade. The U.S. will host the men’s 2031 Rugby World Cup and the women’s 2033 Rugby World Cup.
Goren believes those World Cup events serve as “the opportunity to really change the game and really kind of put rugby in the U.S. up there with all the other major sports.”
Player representatives for each of the six nations participating in the Pacific Nations Cup were on hand for Wednesday’s announcement.
Matt Jensen served as the representative for USA Rugby.
Utah played a major role in Jensen’s rugby career. He played for Highland High rugby and BYU, and he’s now with the Utah Warriors, where he has spent the entirety of his Major League Rugby career.
Jensen told the Deseret News that “it’s a huge opportunity” for Utah to host the Pacific Nations Cup final.
“The rugby community in Utah is awesome. I mean, the fans are super supportive. Everybody loves the game here. It’s a group of people that really deserves to have, to get to witness an international match in their own backyard,” he said.
Falling in love with rugby takes watching just one game, Jensen said.
“I just tell people all the time, as soon as you watch one game, you’re converted. I mean, it’s just getting people out to see it, witness it, to watch their first match,” he said. “Everybody falls in love with it that watches it. So, it’s a great sport. It really brings together a lot of diverse backgrounds and communities and so just come out and watch and fall in love with it.”
The presale for tickets to the Pacific Nations Cup matches in the U.S. will begin Tuesday, May 13. Fans can register online to take part.
Tickets will open to the general public on Wednesday, May 14.