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The Rugby World Cup needs global repechage. Wait, what? There already is one is there not? In actuality no. While it is true that Pool B of Japan 2019 will have the Repechage Winner and Pool A the Play-Off Winner the system favors particular regions over others.
The Repechage Winner could, in theory, come from any region. In contrast, The Play-Off Winner will be either from Europe or Oceania. The system has been carefully constructed by World Rugby to try to suit the needs of the World Cup. To fully understand the qualifying process take the time to read about it here.
Inconsistent Regional Paths
Under the existing set-up similarly ranked countries do not have equal opportunity at qualifying. The recent Nations Cup underlined this very well.
Played in Montevideo there were four official test sides competing – Namibia, Russia, Spain and Uruguay. They were joined by the ‘A’ sides from Argentina and Italy respectively.
Uruguay were crowned champions by defeating Emerging Italy, Russia and Spain. Los Teros were 32-29 winners over Russia and 24-14 over Spain. In other matches both Russia and Spain defeated Namibia, doing so despite Namibia being at full strength.
Russia was particularly impressive against Namibia, winning by 21 points. Logic suggests that if Uruguay can beat two teams that beat Namibia then the South American country ought to have an equal or better opportunity at qualifying for Japan 2019.
As South American A Championship winners Uruguay will tackle the North American runner-up. If successful Uruguay will qualify for Rugby World Cup 2019. If not Uruguay will enter repechage.
For Russia and Spain the task is finishing above Belgium, Germany and Romania in the European Nations Cup. The second placed side of these five will, like Uruguay, enter repechage.
Namibia has two paths – winning the Africa Cup or finishing as runner-up and entering repechage. Others involved are Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Of them Cote d’Ivoire and Zimbabwe have prior Rugby World Cup experience but, like Namibia, no victories. Kenya, though, is arguably the biggest threat to Namibia. To add to the imbalance which advantages Africa, Kenya lost at home to Germany last month.
Re-branding the Nations Cup
A frequent topic raised in response to the above is to expand Rugby World Cups from 20 to 24 teams. A recent meeting in Japan, however, clarified that expansion is out of the question for the time being.
An alternative path can be offered – re-thinking repechage.
Firstly, why not convert the Nations Cup into a bigger and more global event? Effectively making it a bringing together of leading Tier 3 unions. This could be done by re-branding it as Global Repechage. Instead of having an annual event have it played as the final part of Rugby World Cup qualifiers.
Secondly, why not look to the success of the Rugby Sevens model and act upon it? Montevideo could host one leg. Bucharest is a proven host while Spain has done very well in hosting European Nations Cup and November Internationals. Barcelona has even hosted a Top 14 Final.
In other regions Hong Kong would be a strong option for Asia while Nairobi is is a candidate for Africa.
The Global Repechage could slot into the existing June and November windows. Doing so would be plausible by having regional Rugby World Cup qualifiers played in the year after the World Cup. The following November could thus stage the first leg of Global Repechage. June and November could then host the following year with the next June completing the process.
If this hypothetical structure were in place already it would mean that November 2017, June 2018, November 2018 and June 2019 would be the time frame. Thus five months before the World Cup starts there would remain plenty of suspense as to who the teams would be.
Global Repechage Format
A Global Repechage series would be both an expansion of the existing model and a restructuring. Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, South America and North America would continue their regional qualifiers. But not all would have automatic slots for the World Cup.
Similar to South America 1 not qualifying automatically the same would become true of Africa 1. This would be managed by having the 8 qualifying spots redistributed into Americas 1, Americas 2, Europe 1, Europe 2, Oceania 1, Oceania 2, Global Repechage 1 and Global Repechage 2.
Global Repechage would involve the next two best from all regions. The Americas would continue to combine Rugby Americas North and Sudamérica Rugby. Thus potentially Uruguay and Chile would be the participants. Africa’s participants may be Namibia and Kenya, Europe’s Germany and Russia (Spain already Europe 2). In Oceania Tonga and Papua New Guinea loom as probable with Hong Kong and South Korea completing the list as Asia 1 and 2.
