Rugby union has been a men's medal sport at the South Pacific Games (now Pacific Games), being played at nine of the first ten competitions. The sport debuted at the inaugural 1963 games where the gold medal was won by the host nation. It was subsequently featured in the following games till the tenth games in 1995.
Prior to the late 1990s the men's tournament at the South Pacific Games, as it was then known, was contested by national rugby union teams (i.e. 15-a-side). The shorter version of the sport, rugby sevens, being better suited to multi-sports events led to the change of the games programme. The event made its debut in the Pacific Games programme at the 1997 South Pacific Mini Games.
| Year | Host | width=1% rowspan=11 bgcolor=ffffff | Final | width=1% rowspan=11 bgcolor=ffffff | Bronze medal match | width=1% rowspan=11 bgcolor=ffffff | Ref | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=15% | Gold medal | width=10% | Score | width=15% | Silver medal | width=15% | Bronze medal | width=10% | Score | width=15% | Fourth place | |||
| 1963 |  Suva | align=center style="padding:1px; line-height:102%; font-size:87%; color:#555;" | round robin | align=center style="padding:1px; line-height:102%; font-size:87%; color:#555;" | n/a | align=center style="padding:1px; line-height:102%; font-size:87%; color:#555;" | only three teams entered | [1] [2] | ||||||
| 1966 |  Nouméa | align=center style="padding:1px; line-height:102%; font-size:87%; color:#555;" | round robin | align=center style="padding:1px; line-height:102%; font-size:87%; color:#555;" | round robin | [3] | ||||||||
| 1969 |  Port Moresby | 88–3 | align=center style="padding:1px; line-height:102%; font-size:87%; color:#555;" | round robin | [4] | |||||||||
| 1971 |  Papeete | 23–9 | 14–0 | [5] [6] [7] | ||||||||||
| 1979 | Suva | 6–3 | 9–8 | [8] [9] | ||||||||||
| 1983 | Apia | 18–10 | 70–0 | [10] | ||||||||||
| 1987 | Nouméa | 22–9 | [11] [12] [13] | |||||||||||
| 1991 | Port Moresby | 34–7 | [14] [15] | |||||||||||
| 1995 | Papeete | 25–11 | Only two teams participated | [16] | ||||||||||
The all-time medal table for rugby at the South Pacific Games, from 1963–95 is collated in the table below.
| Year | Host | width=1% rowspan=11 bgcolor=ffffff | Final | width=1% rowspan=11 bgcolor=ffffff | Bronze medal match | width=1% rowspan=11 bgcolor=ffffff | Ref | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=15% | Gold medal | width=10% | Score | width=15% | Silver medal | width=15% | Bronze medal | width=10% | Score | width=15% | Fourth place | |||
| 1985 |  Rarotonga | def. | [17] [18] [19] | |||||||||||