{"id":889268,"date":"2026-09-12T11:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T11:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/889268\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T11:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T11:02:09","slug":"defending-champion-fiji-beats-canada-to-advance-to-rugbys-pacific-nations-cup-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/889268\/","title":{"rendered":"Defending champion Fiji beats Canada to advance to rugby&#8217;s Pacific Nations Cup final"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">OSAKA, Japan &#8212; Two-time defending champion Fiji scored three tries in the first 23 minutes and continued its domination to defeat Canada 45-29 in a Pacific Nations Cup <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/rugby\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">rugby<\/a> semifinal on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Kitione Salawa scored in the first 30 seconds and Frank Lomani and Isaiah Armstrong-Ravula added later first-half tries, with Armstrong-Ravula also converting two of the tries. Fiji led 26-17 at halftime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Canada was beaten 57-12 by Japan last weekend and head coach Stephen Meehan made 10 changes to his squad, to no avail against a strong Fijian side.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \"><a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/japan-rugby-eligibility-lafaele-da7b7e29b339c893578cf5e61e5d88b3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Japan<\/a> will play the United States in the second match of the semifinal doubleheader at the Hanazono Rugby Stadium in Osaka later Saturday. Japan has won nine of its last 10 matches against the U.S.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">This year\u2019s tournament features a condensed four-team format with the semifinal winners progressing to next Saturday\u2019s final, and the losers playing a match for third place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Both matches will be played at Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium in Tokyo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">___<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \"><a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/rugby\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">See AP\u2019s full rugby coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OSAKA, Japan &#8212; Two-time defending champion Fiji scored three tries in the first 23 minutes and continued its&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":889269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-889268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=889268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}