SEVENS: Series spots up for grabs
Both the men's and women's events have been fully combined across the two days of competition.
The best-placed men's team – excluding World Series core teams Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Samoa – will win a spot at the 2017 Wellington Sevens in January and 2017 Sydney Sevens in February. The two best-placed teams excluding the core teams will win spots at the 2017 Hong Kong Sevens in April.
In the women's championship the best-placed team – excluding World Series core teams Australia and New Zealand – will win a spot at the 2017 Sydney Sevens in February and will also qualify to play in the 2017/2018 World Sevens Series qualifying tournament in Hong Kong in April.
The 17 captains gathered on Wednesday for the traditional pre-Championship photograph at the University of the South Pacific. The Championships kick-off with Fijiana playing Papua New Guinea in the women's championship.
"The Championships have created great excitement in the region, given that the Gold Medal Olympic Champions will be playing in both the men's [Fiji] and women's [Australia] championships.
"We are set for two days of terrific action as the coveted Oceania titles are being played for as well as places in future World Sevens Series tournaments," Richard Sapias, Oceania Rugby President, said.
The men's section has been divided into two pools of five teams, with each team playing four games within their Pool. At the conclusion of the Men's pool rounds, teams will be ranked in each pool based on the total number of competition points.
The top two placed teams from each pool will proceed directly to the Championship semi-finals while the third and fourth placed teams from each pool will proceed directly to the fifth to eighth ranking semi-finals.
The fifth placed team from each pool will contest the 9th and 10th playoff.
The women will play in a seven team round robin competition, with each team playing six games each. At the conclusion of the Women's pool rounds, teams will be ranked based on the total number of competition points accumulated.
The team with the most number of competition points will be declared the winner of the Women's Championship.
Men's:
Pool A: Fiji, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, American Samoa, Nauru.
Pool B: Australia, Samoa, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia.
Women's: Australia, Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, Tonga, Solomon Islands.
