Kenya, Uganda Win RWC Qualifiers

Kenya, and Uganda picked up wins today in RWC Qualifiers, doing so over Tunisia, and Morocco respectively. The matches were the penultimate round of Africa’s 2018 Gold Cup, the qualifying series to determine who goes to RWC 2019 as Africa 1 and who enters repechage.

Africa 1 will playing Pool B of RWC 2019. While qualifying will represent mission accomplished it will just be the beginning as the team will face three Tier 1 sides – Italy, New Zealand, and South Africa.

The Africa 1 qualifier will play matches in Hanazono, Toyota, Shizuoka, and Kamaishi. The match days are spread from Sunday September 22 to Sunday October 13. This represents three more days than that of the Repechage Winner, which could be Africa 2.

The Repechage Winner will be the winning side of Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, and Africa 2. The four will contest a special Repechage Final tournament in Marseille, France in November. The winner will qualify as the 20th, and final competitor for Japan 2019.

Canada’s preparation for the winner-takes-all tournament is underway. Canada ‘A’ are today facing Top 14 champions, Castres in France. For the Canadians the tour to France is nothing short of vital ahead of D-Day in November.

The favorites tag has been linked to the Canadians. Historically speaking Canada certainly has a resumé – notably appearances in all RWCs, and a Quarter Finals appearance in 1991.

Yet as the USA and Uruguay both demonstrated in RWC 2019 qualifiers, Canada is in an uphill battle to match the heroics of the past. This was further enforced this past June by Russia claiming a comprehensive win in Ottawa.

Today’s wins for Kenya, and Uganda confirm that next Saturday is the big day for Africa. Both Africa 1 and Africa 2 will be determined in the same match as Namibia host Kenya in Windhoek. Namibia go into the match with 20 points in the Gold Cup, three more than the Simbas.

Based on history between the countries and form throughout the Gold Cup, Namibia are favorites to claim Africa 1. Namibia’s appearances at RWCs 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, and 2015 is highly respectable. While the Namibians have been winless they have always made it there as Africa 1.

Kenya’s task of writing history requires the Simbas to defeat Namibia on the road and for the Welwitschias to not pick up a bonus point. It means Namibia are well placed and are clear favorites for Africa 1, making Kenya highly likely to join Canada, Germany, and Hong Kong in repechage.

Kenya’s home win over Tunisia today was impressive. The Simbas dominated the North African visitors, winning 67-0 in Nairobi. Leading the way was man-of-the-match Martin Owilah who was among the try scorers.

So impressive were the Kenyans that they were 40-0 ahead at half time. The result maintains the Kenyans retain their unbeaten record in the 2018 Africa Gold Cup. Today’s win was their fourth victory but just their first with a bonus point. As such Kenya move from 12 to 17 points with one match left to play.

In today’s other match Uganda underlined themselves as the third best in the Gold Cup. Uganda defeated Morocco 47-29, giving the Cranes their second victory to end their RWC 2019 qualifying campaign with a 2-3 record this year.

Below Uganda are Tunisia, Zimbabwe and Morocco, the latter two of these have zero wins from four matches played. Uganda host Zimbabwe next Saturday while Tunisia are at home to Morocco. All four have been eliminated from RWC 2019. They, nonetheless, have final standings in the Africa Gold Cup to play for. A win for Zimbabwe will give them a 4th place finish. Alternatively a Ugandan victory may see Zimbabwe tied with Tunisia for bottom spot. Both Zimbabwe and Morocco are in search of their first wins.