Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
Hong Kong began their RWC qualifying series with a win. They downed Malaysia 67-8 in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday to go to top spot in the qualifiers.
The match was the second in the Asia Rugby Championship following on from South Korea’s 35-10 win over Malaysia last weekend.
Both Hong Kong and South Korea have wins over Malaysia and will meet in the next match of the qualifying series. The teams are to do so next weekend in Incheon, South Korea. The winning team will be the favorite to win the tournament and to advance in RWC qualifying.
Europe 1 and Europe 2
Still undecided is who exactly is Europe 1 and Europe 2. Approaching two months after the end of the Rugby Europe Championship investigations have not concluded. World Rugby declared that the controversial Belgium vs Spain fixture ought to be replayed repeated and has since said a final decision is coming on May 10.
This has seen Romania’s tour to Oceania to face Fiji and Tonga cancelled and Samoa’s home-and-away series vs Europe 2 postponed. Samoa is now set to play against Fiji and Tonga in place of Romania while Portugal is still waiting to learn who it will play against in a play-off.
Seemingly still going ahead is Russia’s tour to North America in June. The Bears are scheduled to play one test in both Canada and the USA. When this happens there is a solid chance that it will be as Europe 1 with Romania, Spain and Belgium all having been disqualified for breaching player eligibility laws.
Canada’s Repechage Opponents
Also awaiting with interest is Canada. As Americas 3 Canada are to play against three others in the Global Repechage tournament in France in November. Although not suffering frustrations to the same extent as Samoa the delays are certainly complicating matters for many.
Canada will be joined by Africa 2. This country is to be the runner-up of the upcoming Rugby Africa Gold Cup. The remaining two spots will be the Europe / Oceania play-off loser and the winner of the Asia / Oceania play-off.
The winner of Samoa vs Europe 2 will qualify for RWC 2019 automatically while the loser will enter repechage. The winner of the Asia / Oceania play-off will be one of Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea and the Cook Islands.
The Cook Islands were not supposed to be in the match. Instead their place was taken by Tahiti only for the Tahitians to be disqualified from the qualifying process by World Rugby. The Cook Islands will face the winner of the ongoing Asian qualifying series home-and-away on June 30 and July 07.
The country which wins the Global Repechage tournament in November will qualify for RWC 2019, and will compete in Pool B. That pool contains Italy, New Zealand, South Africa and Africa 1.
Countries That Can Still Qualify
Pending the results of the Rugby Europe investigation there could be as many as 20 teams which can still qualify for RWC 2019. They are Canada (Americas), Romania, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Germany, Belgium (Europe), Cook Islands, Samoa, (Oceania), Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea (Asia), Kenya, Morocco, Namibia, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe (Africa).
