Fiji, Samoa and Tonga line up in Pool A, while Canada, Japan and USA make up Pool B. Each team will play one home and one away match in the pool stage.
Like last year, a Finals Series will decide the destination of the title, with the top two teams in each pool advancing to the semi-finals. The winners of those matches will contest a Grand Final, while the losers play-off for third place.
As a curtain-raiser to the first semi-final on 14 September, the teams that finish bottom of their respective pools will compete in a fifth-place play-off – with a ticket to Australia for Men's Rugby World Cup 2027 on the line. The second semi-final will take place a day later at the same Denver, Colorado, venue.
Six-time champions and 2024 tournament winners Fiji already have a seat at RWC 2027, thanks to their quarter-final run in France in 2023 – but they will have no intention of giving up the title they won last September in emphatic fashion in Higashiosaka, Japan.
Head coach Mick Byrne’s 30-player squad is a typical mix of experience and new talent, featuring veterans Semi Radradra, Seta Tamanivalu, Mesake Doge and Bill Mata, as well as uncapped trio Taniela Rakuro, Tuidraki Samusamuvodre, and Isoa Tuwai.
Japan, too, already know they will head to Australia in a little over two years, courtesy of their third-place Pool D finish behind England and Argentina at France 2023. But Eddie Jones will want his young, exuberant, all-action squad – which continues his selection policy for the Brave Blossoms’ July tests against Wales, as well as the two non-capped matches against the Māori All Blacks – to go one better this year.
That leaves three Rugby World Cup slots up to be filled by the end of PNC 2025, while the team that finishes sixth will enter a two-leg South America/Pacific qualifying play-off against the Sudaméricano 2025 runner-up.
Freshly minted Manu Samoa coach Lemalu Tusiata Pisi has also opted for a mix of old and new in his squad. They lost 41-14 in the opening match of his watch, against Scotland in Auckland in July – their first outing since September 2024. He and his staff will expect better, as they seek Rugby World Cup qualification.
Another new head coach, Canada’s Stephen Meehan, is still looking for his first win since taking over from Kingsley Jones in December, and overseeing hard-fought losses against Belgium and Spain in July. The lowest-ranked side in PNC 2025 will have their eyes firmly on a seat on the plane to Australia, after missing out on qualification for the tournament in France – the first Rugby World Cup they have missed.
Tonga repeated their PNC 2024 preparations with a warm-up match against Super Rugby Pacific side Queensland Reds at Te’ufaiva Park on Friday. John Tapueluelu scored two of their six tries as they won 38-19 in their only hit-out of 2025 so far. A repeat of last year’s fifth-place play-off win will guarantee a trip to Australia in 2027, but the ’Ikale Tahi will have their sights set higher.
USA last stepped on to a rugby pitch in July, when they lost 40-5 against England in Washington DC, but head coach Scott Lawrence said at the time his players learned a lot. “We’re starting to work on combinations that we didn’t have coming in at the start,” he said at the time. “So that’ll be our main focus besides the regular building blocks of putting the team together.”
Like Canada, USA missed out on the tournament in France after losing to Portugal in the Final Qualification Tournament. They won’t want to fall out of contention this year.
Time’s almost up – all six sides have to be ready.