Sport in the Cook Islands

Sport in the Cook Islands

Rugby union is the most popular sport in the Cook Islands with football (soccer) and rugby league also popular.Fact|date=August 2007

Rugby union

The Cook Islands is a tier three rugby union playing nation. They began playing international rugby in the early 1990s and have yet to make the Rugby World Cup.

The Cook Islands Rugby Union is the governing body for rugby union in the Cook Islands. It was founded in 1989 and became affiliated to the International Rugby Board in 1995.

Rugby league

The Cook Islands were introduced to rugby league in 1988 when the national team played it first fixture against the New Zealand Maori team. In the mid 1990s rugby league in the Cook Islands received significant funding through the SuperLeague organisation however money from this source is no longer available. Also a fall in the population has made it difficult to muster rugby league playing numbers in the Cook Islands themselves. Much of the rugby league played by Cook Islanders has been in Australia and New Zealand where there are strong Cook Island populations.

In more recent times Cook Islands rugby league has received a major boost through the involvement of former professional rugby league players Kevin Iro and Matt Rua (both native Cook Islanders) in the form of selector and defensive coach for the national side. Both players represented New Zealand internationally and played many NRL games.

Football

The Cook Islands Football Association is the governing body of football in Cook Islands. The Cook Islands Round Cup is the top division in the Cook Islands and the Cook Islands Cup is the top knock-out tournament.

Cricket

Cricket is also played on Rarotonga and some of the outer islands (where the rules are often similar to the Samoan sport Kirikiti), most villages have teams and they compete in a league following the end of the soccer season. It is popular among the older generation.

Netball

Women's netball is a very popular sport in the country and the Cook Islands have one of the world's top 10 teams which competed in the 2007 World Cup.


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