Germany Advance to Face Samoa in RWC Play-Off

A 16-13 win today sees Germany advancing to face Samoa in a RWC 2019 Play-Off. The Germans booked themselves their trip to Apia by defeating Portugal in a nail-biter in Heidelberg.

Trailing 6-3 at half time Germany went ahead before being caught by Portugal in the second half. Victory was ultimately secured late in the piece. Both Germany and Portugal scored one converted try each. What separated the teams was a penalty with Germany landing two compared to Portugal’s one.

Today’s win over Portugal confirmed Germany as Europe 2. This position means Germany advances to face Samoa in a RWC Play-Off. The winner of the series, on aggregate, will qualify for RWC 2019 as the Play-Off Winner.

The Play-Off Winner will be the fifth and final participant in Pool A of RWC 2019. This means either Germany or Samoa will compete against Japan, Ireland, Russia, and Scotland in next year’s RWC.

The Oceanians will have home advantage first up. The national capital of Apia will play host to the first RWC qualifier between the countries on Saturday June 30. Germany will host the return fixture two weeks later on Saturday July 14.

Samoa enters the series as heavy favorites. They have a proud history of having played in RWCs 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, and 2015. Their absence from the inaugural tournament was based on a belief that they were not, at the time, a strong enough team.

Fiji and Tonga were both a part of RWC 1987 though Fiji would miss out on qualifying for RWC 1995 and Tonga for RWC 1991. In both these tournaments Samoa impressed by reaching the Quarter Finals.

Both Samoa and Germany have player rosters which are heavily boosted by players qualifying via eligibility laws. In Samoa’s loss to Fiji in their RWC qualifier a year ago they had 10 New Zealanders in starting the match. All qualified via having a parent from Samoa.

Germany’s win today comes following a poor campaign in the Rugby Europe Championship. The Germans lost by an average of 65 points per match yet were able to face Portugal based on World Rugby disqualifying Belgium, Romania and Spain from RWC qualification.

The triple disqualification for breaching player eligibility laws saw Romania replaced by Russia as Europe 1 and Spain by Germany. Russia will now be Japan’s opponent to open RWC 2015.

Russia competed in RWC 2011, Spain in RWC 1999 and Portugal in 2007. Romania competed in all previous RWCs, making RWC 2019 the first in history to not involve the Oaks.

RWC 2019 could also see Germany involved. It would be a first as never before has Germany qualified for a RWC. The team has connections to the Americas with Pablo Lemoine being Head Coach. He played for Uruguay at RWCs 1999 and 2003 and coached his country at RWC 2015.

The task facing Germany is highly complex. Germany, though, have achieved results in the recent past of note. In November 2016 Germany defeated Uruguay. In addition results in Europe have been positive when playing with a full roster.

The lower of the Germany vs Samoa RWC Play-Off series will not be eliminated from RWC qualification. Instead there will be one last opportunity with Germany or Samoa entering repechage.

In November there will be a special global repechage tournament in France. Competing will be four countries with the winner qualifying for Pool B of RWC 2019. That country will join Africa 1 (likely Namibia), Italy, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Confirmed in the repechage tournament so far is Canada. The three others are to be Africa 2, Loser of Germany vs Samoa, and the winner of Cook Islands vs Hong Kong.

 

RWC 2019 PLAY-OFF FIXTURES
Saturday June 30 Samoa vs Germany, Apia Park, Apia
Saturday July 14 Germany vs Samoa, venue tba

 

SCORING

GERMANY 16
Tries – J. Els (51’)
Cons – R. Parkinson 1/1 (52’)
Pens – R. Parkinson 3/3 (6’, 64’, 72’)

PORTUGAL 13
Tries – S. Villax (48’)
Cons – J. Rodrigues 1/1 (49’)
Pens – J. Rodrigues 2/2 (24’, 29’)

 

TEAMS

GERMANY
1 Julius Nostadt (capt.) (18 Jörn Schröder 68’), 2 Mikael Tyumenev (16 Mark Fairhurst 50’), 3 Samy Füchsel (17 Antony Dickinson 53’), 4 Eric Marks, 5 Sebastian Ferreira, 6 Ayron Schramm (19 Marcel Henn 20’), 7 Jaco Otto, 8 Jarrid Els (20 Timo Vollenkemper 70’), 9 Sean Armstrong (21 Tim Menzel 75’), 10 Hagen Schulte (23 Christopher Hilsenbeck 50’), 11 Pierre Mathurin, 12 Raynor Parkinson, 13 Mathieu Ducau, 14 Maxime Oltmann, 15 Marcel Coetzee (22 Nikolai Klewinghaus HT)

PORTUGAL
1 Francisco Fernandes (16 Bruno Medeiros 53’), 2 Duarte Diniz, 3 Bruno Rocha (23 João Taveira 53’), 4 Jean Sousa, 5 Gonçalo Uva (18 Geordie McSullea 59’), 6 Salvador Vassalo (capt.), 7 Sebastião Villax, 8 Jacques le Roux (19 Francisco Sousa 75’), 9 Manuel Queirós, 10 José Rodrigues, 11 Aderito Esteves, 12 Vasco Ribeiro, 13 Rodrigo Freudenthal, 14 Tomás Appleton, 15 Nuno Guedes

Not used: 17 Nuno Mascarenhas, 20 Francisco Vieira, 21 Manuel Pereira, 22 Cyrille Andreu

 

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Tom Foley (RFU)
Assistants: Ian Tempest (RFU) & Christophe Ridley (RFU)