The 2015 Cup of Nations was the third Cup of Nations tournament, but the first held outside the United Arab Emirates. Unlike 2011 and 2012, the Cup of Nations was staged in Hong Kong at the Hong Kong Football Club Stadium from November 13 to 21. The tournament acted as a year ending tournament for tier 3 teams from different continents and provides greater preparation for teams to play in their regional competitions, especially this year participants who aim to qualify for the 2019 Rugby World Cup haven failed to qualify for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.[1]
| 2015 Cup of Nations | |
|---|---|
| Countries |  Hong Kong Zimbabwe |
| Date | 13–21 November 2015 |
| Champions |  Russia (1st title) |
| Runners-up | Hong Kong |
| Matches played | 6 |
The four competing teams were hosts Hong Kong, who won the tournament in 2011, Zimbabwe who competed in 2012, while Portugal and Russia are new to the tournament having not competed in either of the 2015 World Rugby Tbilisi Cup or 2015 World Rugby Nations Cup.[2]
Format edit
The tournament is being played as a single round-robin, with the winner being the leading team after the third round of fixtures.
The points for the tournament were awarded for:
- Win = 4 points
- Draw = 2 points
- Loss = 1 point
- Scoring 4 or more tries in one game = 1 bonus point
- Losing by 7 or less points = 1 bonus point
Standings edit
| Place | Nation | Games | Points | Bonus points |
Table points | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | For | Against | Difference | ||||
| 1 | Russia (22) |
3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 104 | 29 | +75 | 0 | 13 |
| 2 | Hong Kong (24) |
3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 55 | 48 | +7 | 0 | 9 |
| 3 |  Portugal (28) |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 54 | 47 | +7 | 0 | 5 |
| 4 | Zimbabwe (26) |
3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 27 | 116 | -89 | 0 | 0 |
Pre-tournament rankings in parentheses
Fixtures edit
Round 1 edit
Round 2 edit
Round 3 edit
See also edit
References edit
- ^ "Rising Russia to join Portugal and Zimbabwe in Hong Kong Cup of Nations". South China Morning Post. 2015-05-29. Archived from the original on 2023-06-05.
- ^ "Sables to play in Hong Kong Cup of Nations - NewsDay Zimbabwe". newsday.co.zw. 2 June 2015. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
- ^ a b worldrugby.org. "Russia crowned HKRU Cup of Nations champions". worldrugby.org. Retrieved 14 September 2017.