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Kenya and Namibia won their respective RWC qualifiers today in Africa. Their victories see them both very well placed in the Gold Cup – Rugby Afrique’s qualifying path to RWC 2019.
Namibia wrote history, defeating Tunisia 118-0. The win sets a new national record, replacing Namibia’s 112-0 win over Madagascar in 2002. The game was Namibia’s second in their RWC qualifiers. Last weekend they started strongly, downing Uganda 55-6 in Windhoek.
The other match last weekend saw Zimbabwe at home against Morocco. The teams competed to a 23-23 draw in Harare, a result which highly advantaged Morocco.
Yet the chances of Morocco being in with a shot at either becoming Africa 1 or Africa 2 would appear to be very low now. Morocco fell to a 28-24 home defeat today against Kenya. Kenya was forced to defend to the death to stop Morocco from scoring. As such it means Morocco is winless after two rounds.
On two previous occasions Morocco have been on the verge of qualifying for a RWC. During the qualifiers for RWCs 1999 and 2007 Morocco got themselves into strong positions only to miss out.
The African RWC qualifiers continue next weekend. Morocco have home advantage against Namibia while Kenya are also at home, taking on Zimbabwe. Realistically without either Namibia or Kenya being upset next weekend the two sides will go on to contest the final round spot on August 18 with Africa 1 up for grabs.
Africa 1 is to directly qualify for RWC 2019. This country will join Italy, New Zealand, South Africa and the repechage winner in Pool B. The Africa 1 qualifier will open against Italy in Osaka and subsequently face South Africa in Toyota, New Zealand in Tokyo, and the Repechage Winner in Kamaishi.
Africa 2 is to join Canada, the winner of the Cook Islands vs Hong Kong and the loser of Samoa vs Germanyin repechage. The four countries will compete in a global repechage tournament in France this coming November to determine who is the Recharge Winner.
