Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
There are a total of 28 countries chasing the remaining 8 vacancies at Rugby World Cup 2019. These countries are from all of World Rugby’s designated regions. In the case of the Americas the regions of Rugby Americas North and Sudamérica Rugby are combined for the purposes of Rugby World Cup qualification.
The completion of the South American ‘A’ Championship sees the qualifying phase temporarily placed on hold. It is to resume on June 24 with three matches taking place. By the end of June one of the eight remaining slots will have been taken.
Americas
One of the three June 24 fixtures will be Canada vs USA. The North American countries are to play a home-and-away series with the winner officially qualifying for Japan 2019. That team will be Americas 1 and will play in Pool C against the pre-qualified Argentina, England, France and a remaining qualifier, Oceania 2.
The North American runner-up will have an opportunity at qualifying as Americas 2. Doing so will require winning a home-and-away series against Uruguay. Los Teros finished as South America 1 by virtue of winning the 2017 South American ‘A’ Championship.
Americas 2 will play in Pool D in Japan. This pool is to be easier to negotiate than that of Pool C. In other words, it may not necessarily be a negative to be North America 2 and face Uruguay. Pool D contains Australia, Georgia, Wales and Oceania 1.
The losing side of the Uruguay vs North America 2 fixture will enter repechage and will have one last shot at qualifying.
Africa
Ten countries remain in Africa. They are Namibia, Kenya, Senegal, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Morocco, Madagascar, Cote d’Ivoire and Botswana. The first six of these are competing in Africa Division 1A while the remaining four are in Division 1B.
The Division B winner will advance to the Africa repechage play-off, while the top 4 teams from Division 1A will remain in 1A and advance to Round 3. Division 1A will have matches in June. On June 24 Kenya will play host to Uganda while Senegal will do so against Zimbabwe. Subsequent matches will follow throughout July and finishing on August 05. The top 4 will advance to the finals with the 2018 African winner qualifying for Japan 2019 as Africa 1. The 2017 5th and 6th placed sides will be eliminated.
The runner-up of the fixtures in 2018 will be Africa 2. That country is to secure a repechage birth. In doing so it will compete for the right to play in Pool B against Italy, New Zealand, South Africa and Africa 1.
The repechage winner could come from any of World Rugby’s regions. The World Repechage will contain four teams with two of them guaranteed as being from the Americas and Africa. Americas 3 and Africa 2 will be joined by inter-confederation play-offs. They are to be the runner-up of Europe 2 vs Oceania 3 and the winner of the Asia 1 vs Oceania 4 play-off.
Asia
In Asia Hong Kong, South Korea and Malaysia remain in with a chance of qualifying. The 2019 host nation, Japan, made history by pre-qualifying based on winning three of four matches in England 2015. This saw the Japanese finishing in third spot of their pool, doing so behind South Africa and Scotland.
Qualification began in May 2016 and will continue until mid-2018. The winner of the 2018 Asian Rugby Championship, featuring the three countries, will advance to an inter-continental playoff series against Oceania 4 for a repechage spot.
Japan’s automatic qualification resulted in World Rugby changing the qualifying process. This means Asia 1 will not qualify directly. Instead the winner of South Korea, Hong Kong and Malaysia will face a long road in repechage.
Europe
Romania, Russia, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Portugal and the Czech Republic are the remaining contenders from Europe. The first five of these are competing in the Rugby Europe Championship with Georgia. The winner, or second placed side if Georgia win, will qualify for Japan 2019 as Europe 1. The runner-up will enter repechage.
The Europe 2 side is to be either the next best side from the Rugby Europe Championship or the winner of Portugal and the Czech Republic. The latter is to be determined in the Round 4 Final in November. Europe 2 will progress to the Europe 2 vs Oceania 3 play-off. The winner of this side will qualify for Rugby World Cup 2019 and face Ireland, Japan, Scotland and Europe 1.
Oceania
No Pacific Island country managed to finish in the top 3 of their pools in England 2015. This has seen the qualification process altered for the region. Oceania 1 and Oceania 2 will qualify directly for Japan 2019. Oceania 1 will play in Pool D and Oceania 2 in Pool C.
Oceania 3 will have to qualify via repechage. This country will compete for the right to be the Play-Off Winner against Europe 2. If Oceania 3 wins its qualifiers it will be in Pool A.
The Oceania sides remaining in contention are Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands and Tahiti. The first three of these five teams are competing for the two direct qualifying berths in 2019. This series, played over two years, began in 2016. It will resume on July o1 with Tonga at home to Samoa.
The Cook Islands will host Tahiti on August 04. The winner of the match will bone Oceania 4 and will advance to to face Asia 1 in repechage.
