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Tahiti
Nicknames	Tahiti Nui XV, Aito
Union	Fédération Tahitienne de Rugby; de Polynésie Française
Head coach	Romi Ropati
Captain	Tunui Anania
Top scorer	Manuarii Richmond
Top try scorer	Manuarii Richmond
Home stadium	Stade Pater Te Hono Nui
First colours	Second colours
World Rugby ranking
Current	96 (as of 23 November 2020)
First international
	Tahiti 0–3 Wallis and Futuna ; (1 September 1971)
Biggest win
	Tahiti 36–12 Solomon Islands ; (26 August 2015)
Biggest defeat
	Tahiti 9–102 Fiji ; (12 September 1983)
Medal record
Pacific Games
Pacific Mini Games

The Tahiti national rugby union team is a third tier rugby union team, representing the island of Tahiti in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. They first played in 1971 and have played numerous games to date, most against rivals Cook Islands and several against Niue. Other games have been played against Samoa, Wallis and Futuna, Papua New Guinea and Tonga. France played a match against Tahiti at the end of their 1979 tour and won 92–12.^[1] Plans to have annual "test" match series against Pacific island neighbours, New Caledonia have been put on hold, due to time, availability, finances, and coaching and refereeing resources. They have yet to qualify for the Rugby World Cup. Rugby union in Tahiti is administered by the Fédération Tahitienne de Rugby de Polynésie Française. Currently, players who have represented or played for the Tahiti national rugby team, are eligible to represent France. However, playing at a professional level can only enable this. At present there are several Tahitian professional rugby players abroad in France's Top 14 and Pro D2 professional competition.

History

Rugby is greatly growing in popularity in Tahiti, but the national sport still remains soccer.

Rugby came to Tahiti via three separate streams, firstly, through the visits of British, New Zealand and Australian sailors; secondly, through the French presence (many of the main teams are still French military); and thirdly through contact with neighbouring Pacific islands, where the game is popular.^[2]

Tahiti first played the game in 1971.

It was founded in 1989 and became affiliated to the International Rugby Board in 1994.

It is also a full member of Oceania Rugby, which is the governing body for rugby union in Oceania.

Up to 2003, Tahiti played in international rugby sevens (Pacific Games) and XV-a-side, in the qualifying rounds for the Rugby World Cup.^[3]

In 2006, there were fourteen clubs in the national championship and two divisions.^[3] There were also sevens competitions, women's rugby, and under-18 rugby competitions as well.^[3]

In 2017 Tahiti won the Oceania Rugby Cup, beating their rivals Cook Islands at BCI Stadium in Rarotonga, Cook Islands by a score of 13–9.

Uniform and colors

Tahiti's kit are typically All red with white tribal, designs, etc. They also can be seen using a white jersey with red tribal, designs, etc. In the past they have used all white kits with red as their secondary color, and also Red jersey with the Tahitian flag colors and black shorts.

Kit providers

Year	Kit Manufacturer	Main Shirt Sponsor
1971–1979		—
1979–1980		—
1980–1982		—
1982–1983		—
1982–1983		—
1983–1997		—
1997–2001		—
2001–2003		—
2003–2005	Puma	—
2005–2006		—
2006–2013		—
2013–2015		—
2015–present	Sportif JRH	Air Tahiti Nui

Home grounds

Tahiti have played most of their home matches at Stade Pater Te Hono Nui and Stade Fautaua.

Tahiti has also hosted matches for numerous Pacific Games and Oceania Cup. They share these venues with the Tahiti national football team and club sides from both rugby and football.

Annually Tahiti hosts the Papeete International Sevens Tournament.

Record

Oceania Cup

Tahiti competes in the Oceania Cup which is played against seven other Pacific nations: American Samoa, Cook Islands, New Caledonia, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Tahiti has competed in the very first Oceania Cup when it was created in 1997. Since 2015, Tahiti has played 4 matches against: Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, American Samoa and Cook Islands recording a record of 3 wins and 1 loss. Their only loss was to 2015 Oceania Cup Champions Papua New Guinea, and until this date, it has been their only loss since then. They placed second in the standings table and were Runner-up in the tournament. In 2017 they won the Oceania Cup beating their rival Cook Islands in the 2017 Oceania Cup Championship by a score of 9–13 in Avarua, Cook Islands.

Oceania tournaments

Year	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Match venue	Refs
1996*	Cook Islands	round-robin	Papua New Guinea	Rarotonga	^[4]
2002*	Papua New Guinea	29–14 16–21	Cook Islands	Port Moresby Rarotonga	^[5]
2003	Niue	round-robin	Cook Islands	Auckland Rarotonga	^[6]
2004	Cook Islands	50–5	Niue	Rarotonga	^[7]^[8]
2005*	Cook Islands	37–12 11–20	Papua New Guinea	Rarotonga Port Moresby	^[9]
2006	The final of the 2006 FORU Cup between Vanuatu and Niue was cancelled.				^[10]

Oceania Cup

Year	Winner	Score	Runner-up	Match venue	Refs
2007†	Papua New Guinea	46–27	Niue	Paliati, Alofi	^[11]
2008	Niue	27–5	New Caledonia	Nouméa	^[12]
2009*	Papua New Guinea	29–21	Cook Islands	Port Moresby	^[13]
2011	Papua New Guinea	round-robin	Solomon Islands	Port Moresby	^[14]
2013*	Cook Islands	round-robin	Papua New Guinea	Port Moresby	^[15]
2015	Papua New Guinea	round-robin	Tahiti	Port Moresby	^[16]
2017*	Tahiti	13–9	Cook Islands	Rarotonga	^[17]
2019	Papua New Guinea	round-robin	Niue	Port Moresby	^[18]

Notes:

* Part of the Rugby World Cup qualification process.

† The final of the 2007 tournament was not held until April 2008. Starting from 2009, the tournament has been held biennially.

Rugby World Cup

World Cup record
Year	Round	P	W	D	L	F	A
1987	Not invited
1991	did not qualify
1995
1999
2003
2007
2011	did not participate
2015	did not qualify
2019	Disqualified
2023	Suspended
Total	0/9	–	–	–	–	–	–

Overall

Tahiti are currently ranked 84th on the World Rugby Rankings table.^[19]

Against	Played	Won	Lost
American Samoa	1	1	0
Cook Islands	9	2	7
Fiji	1	0	1
France	2	0	2
Italy	1	0	1
New Caledonia	1	1	0
Niue	4	1	3
Papua New Guinea	3	0	3
Samoa	1	0	1
Solomon Islands	4	1	3
Tonga	1	0	1
Wallis and Futuna	2	1	1
Total	29	7	22

Players

Tahiti Nui XV "Aito"

Head coach: Romi Ropati

Player	Position	Date of birth (age)	Club
David Lahille	Hooker	(1990-03-20) 20 March 1990 (age 34)	L'Isle-Jourdain
Martin Taeae	Prop	(1991-07-24) 24 July 1991 (age 33)	Valence-d'Agen
Patrick Tevero	Prop	(1993-12-02) 2 December 1993 (age 31)	La Roche-sur-Yon
Angus Chales	Prop	(1993-11-28) 28 November 1993 (age 31)	Pirae
Brandon Tihata	Prop	(1996-04-29) 29 April 1996 (age 28)	Le Mans
Loic Tautu	Forward	(1983-09-13) 13 September 1983 (age 41)	Arue
Jean Tautu	Forward	(2000-06-19) 19 June 2000 (age 24)
Torea Morou	Lock	(1991-08-09) 9 August 1991 (age 33)	Chartres
Lehi Tematafaarere	Lock	(1989-07-29) 29 July 1989 (age 35)	Chartres
Andrew Vanaa	Back Row	(1989-12-23) 23 December 1989 (age 35)	Isle
Haley Teuira	Flanker	(1986-04-16) 16 April 1986 (age 38)	Pirae
Tunui Anania (c)	Flanker	(1989-04-07) 7 April 1989 (age 35)	Valence-d'Agen
Manuarii Richmond	Number 8	(1988-04-14) 14 April 1988 (age 36)	Faa'a
Guillaume Brouqui	Scrum-half	(1985-07-21) 21 July 1985 (age 39)	Trélissac
Raihau Taurei	Scrum-half	(1994-11-28) 28 November 1994 (age 30)	Pirae
Andoni Jimenez	Fly-half	(1989-08-03) 3 August 1989 (age 35)	Nantes
Anthony Tesquet	Fly-half	(1986-02-17) 17 February 1986 (age 38)	La Teste-de-Buch
Ganaham Huuti	Back	(1997-10-03) 3 October 1997 (age 27)
Teariki Wong Sung	Back	(1993-02-24) 24 February 1993 (age 31)	Le Mans
Tamahao Opeta	Centre	(1997-10-29) 29 October 1997 (age 27)
Mathieu Taulelle	Centre	(1992-01-23) 23 January 1992 (age 32)	La Hulpe
Taitearii Mahuru	Centre	(1989-12-21) 21 December 1989 (age 35)	Pirae
Vincent Perez	Wing	(1989-04-17) 17 April 1989 (age 35)	Tournon-d'Agenais
James Tekurio	Wing	(1984-05-05) 5 May 1984 (age 40)	Muret
Makalea Foliaki	Wing	(1996-09-24) 24 September 1996 (age 28)	Cognac Saint-Jean-d'Angély
Jean-Teiva Jacquelain	Wing	(1994-04-22) 22 April 1994 (age 30)	Mont-de-Marsan
François Tardieu	Fullback	(1995-02-01) 1 February 1995 (age 29)	Valence-d'Agen
Cedric Martin	Fullback	(1989-06-29) 29 June 1989 (age 35)	FCTT

Notable players

Player	Notability
Jean-Teiva Jacquelain	Played for Toulon(Academy) and La Rochelle in Top 14 and Grenoble(Pro D2), currently playing with Mont-de-Marsan in Pro D2 and France 7s
Timi Frogier
Richard Mapuhi	Played for French Club Pau in Pro D2 (49 caps, 1990–1994)
Tauirai Bessert
Apolosi Foliaki
Makalea Foliaki	Played for Toulon(Academy) in Top 14, now playing with Cognac Saint-Jean-d'Angély in Nationale, he is the son of former player Apolosi Foliaki.
Tihoti Tamarono
François Tardieu	Played for Agen(Top 14), Colomiers(Pro D2, Now plays with Valence d’agen(Fédérale 1)

Vakatini Atuahiva (JJ) Played for Counties Manukau Steeelers NZ 1982, 1991–1995: Manawatu 1984–1990 NZ:, NZ All Black Colts 1982 & 1984:

NZ Divisional XV 1993: NZ Maori All Black 1994: Cook Island 7s and XV

Guest players

These players were capped for Tahiti in an invitational match against France to celebrate Bastille Day in Papeete on 14 July 1981:

Enrique Rodríguez (dual international for Argentina & Australia)^[20]
Brett Codlin (All Blacks, 1980)
Robert Kururangi (All Blacks, 1978 & Māori All Blacks, 1982)
Tim Twigden (All Blacks, 1979–80)

References

^ *Vivian Jenkins, ed. (1980). Rothmans Rugby Yearbook 1980–81. Queen Anne Press. p. 38. ISBN 0-362-02018-3.
^ Richard Bath, ed. (1997). The Complete Book of Rugby. Seven Oaks Ltd. p. 75. ISBN 1-86200-013-1.
^ ^a ^b ^c (in French) Archives du Rugby: Mayotte retrieved 8 September 2009
^ "1999 Rugby World Cup Qualifier Results". ESPNscrum. 1 September 1996.
^ "2003 Rugby World Cup Qualifier Results". ESPNscrum. 1 September 1996.
^ "Oceania Cup". ESPNscrum. 6 September 2003.
^ "Oceania Cup". ESPNscrum. 28 August 2004.
^ It is unclear whether this competition included any other game apart from the one between Niue and Cook Islands
^ The competition also served as rounds 1 and 2 of Oceania qualification for 2007 Rugby World Cup.
^ "FORU Cup 2006 / Results". ESPNscrum. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
^ "Niue Island v Papua New Guinea at Paliati". ESPN Scrum. 22 April 2008.
^ "Niue take Oceania Cup rugby union final". ABC Radio Australia. 1 September 2008. Archived from the original on 16 September 2008.
^ Crucial qualifiers IRB. (2009).
^ PNG claim Oceania Cup IRB. (2011).
^ "Cook Islands defeat PNG to claim Oceania Cup and keep Rugby World Cup dream alive". Federation of Oceania Rugby Unions. 14 July 2013. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
^ "Post Match Review ORC 2015 Final". Oceania Rugby. 31 August 2015. Archived from the original on 31 August 2015. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
^ "Tahiti take home Oceania Rugby Cup". Oceania Rugby. 6 August 2017. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
^ "Pupuks win 2019 Oceania Cup". Post-Courrier. 2 September 2019. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
^ World Rugby.org (20 April 2015). "World Rugby Rankings". Retrieved 22 April 2015.
^ Irene Watt (2 April 2012). "Enrique TOPO Rodríguez talks rugby". Retrieved 22 April 2015.