The New Zealand Parliament won the the Parliamentary Rugby World Cup 2019 — avenging a loss to the Australians in the 2015 event — in the extended golden try period after the teams battled to a 10-10 draw.
The rugby tournament saw parliamentarians and parliamentary staff members from nine of the Rugby World Cup participating countries and regions — the two antipodean countries, Argentina, England, France, Georgia, Ireland, Japan and South Africa — battling it out in Yamanashi Prefecture and Tokyo from Sept. 15 to 19.
The Parliamentary Rugby World Cup is held in the host country in the same year as the Rugby World Cup. Previous tournaments were in England in 2015, New Zealand in 2011, France in 2007, Australia in 2003, England and Wales in 1999, and South Africa in 1995.
For this year’s competition, Japan and Georgia formed a joint team, meaning that eight teams were vying for the title. The captain of the Japanese team was Lower House member Gen Nakatani, who is also the chairman of the Parliamentary rugby club.
Each team had three matches, with Australia beating Argentina and South Africa before going down to NZ in the final. France beat out South Africa for third, while Ireland, Georgia-Japan, Argentina and UK rounded out the field.
The tournament was organized by the parliamentary members to help make the Rugby World Cup 2019 a success. The town of Fujikawaguchiko in Yamanashi Prefecture, the Yamanashi Rugby Football Union and Japan Rugby Football Union supported the event. The final was played at the 1964 Olympic stadium.
The mission of the Tournament is to foster International relations development and friendship through parliamentary rugby and our team comprising Parliamentarians, staff members and representatives of the Parliament met with colleagues from the other nations throughout the week. As an excercise in sporting diplomacy few initiatives can rival the shared bonds developed on the the sports pitch and the benefit to key opinion leaders of these initiatives.
The Parliamentary Rugby World Cup team 2019
The amazing view of Mt Fuji from the game
