Pacific Nations Cup final now highly unlikely

The PNC trophy looks like it will have no holder this year with the proposed final unlikely to be scheduled.

When the Pacific Nations Cup schedule was announced last April with a new format split into two conferences (a Pacific Island conference and a Asia/North America conference) had no way of actually deciding who was the champion.

It was rumoured that the IRB were trying to work out whether there would be a final played in November at a neutral venue somewhere in Europe, but that now looks certain not to be the case.

There will be no Samoa vs Japan
final for the PNC this year

Japan, who beat Canada and USA to top their conference, have their November fixtures now looking set (New Zealand Maori twice, then Romania and Georgia) meaning that all their remaining spots in the IRB window are used up. So barring a big change of plan, there will be no PNC final and no trophy awarded for 2014.

If you ever needed confirmation that the PNC was essentially just a bunch of friendlies with very little meaning or context to the "tournament", then this was it. There isn't even likely to be a trophy given out at the end of it this year.

In previous years even when there was a trophy the games had largely just a feel of a series of friendlies as well, there is little added by the "tournament" factor when there is nothing to be gained from winning it and the trophy lacks credibility.