Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
Uganda hammered Tunisia in a RWC qualifier today, winning 67-12 at the Kyadondo Rugby Club in Kampala. The match was part of the Africa Gold Cup, the ongoing continental series to determine who will join South Africa in representing Rugby Afrique at RWC 2019 in Japan.
Uganda’s victory sees the Cranes moving up form 6th, and bottom, position of the Africa Gold Cup. It comes late in the piece though, following a 55-6 defeat against Namibia and a 38-22 loss against Kenya.
Uganda is yet to face both Morocco and Zimbabwe, sides well behind the top two of Namibia and Kenya. The Cranes will face Zimbabwe on the final day of the Africa Gold Cup. That same say sees Morocco on the road to Tunisia and Namibia at home against Kenya.
The Namibia vs Kenya fixture is increasingly becoming a winner-takes-all match. Results from prior RWC qualifying matches in Africa point strongly to the winner of Namibia vs Kenya qualifying for RWC 2019 as Africa 1.
Africa 1 will play in Pool B of RWC 2019 in Japan. The demanding group contains Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Italy and the Repechage Winner.
The Repechage Winner is to be the 20th, and final, qualifier for Japan 2019. That country will earn their spot in Pool B via winning the special Global Repechage tournament in Marseille, France in November.
Four countries will be competing in Marseille, three of them have already been determined. The first is Canada who missed out on qualifying as Americas 2 based on their losses against Uruguay in January and February of this year.
The second qualifier is Hong Kong. Impressive wins in the competition to be crowned Asia 1 saw Hong Kong advancing to outclass the Cook Islands in home-and-away matches.
Next to enter repechage was Germany. The Central Europeans booked their spot after falling to home-and-away losses against Samoa. The series itself too a long time to occur following the controversy from the Rugby Europe Championship which saw Belgium, Romania, and Spain disqualified. This after Romania had qualified for RWC 2019 and had been confirmed as facing Japan in the tournament opener.
The final participant in the Global Repechage will be Africa 2. In other words the runner-up of the Africa Gold Cup will not be eliminated from RWC qualifying. The second placed country will face Canada, Germany, and Hong Kong in France in November.
Canada has begun preparing for the must-win repechage series. A road map to Marseille was revealed by Rugby Canada with Canada ‘A’ on their way to play against Castres and Clermont in France.
Canada play on August 11 and 17 in France. On August 18 Canada’s African opponent will be confirmed as will Africa 1, the team qualifying directly for RWC 2019.
