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A big win over the Cook Islands sees Hong Kong close to joining Canada in the Repechage. Hong Kong and the Cook Islands are playing a two-match home-and-away RWC qualifying series with the winner, on aggregate, to join Canada, Africa 2 and the Europe vs Oceania Play-Off loser in the global repechage tournament in November.
Game one saw the Cook Islands having home advantage in Rarotonga. Hong Kong were on top throughout to keep the Cook Islands tryless and come away with a 26-3 victory. The Cook Islands scored only once, doing so with a first half penalty via center Greg Mullany.
Tries for Hong Kong came through no 8 Thomas Lamboley, scrum-half Liam Slatem, and wingers Conor Hartley, and Salom Yiu Kam-shing.
Fly half Matt Rosalie had a disappointing match, failing to convert all four tries. He did, however land a penalty to close out the opening half, giving Hong Kong an 18-3 lead. Improved goal-kicking will be essential for Hong Kong to be competitive in additional RWC qualifiers.
The result means that the Cook Islands need to win by 24 or more points in the return fixture in Hong Kong on Saturday July 07. Realistically Hong Kong is now assured of joining Canada in November’s global repechage tournament in France.
The winner of the global repechage tournament will qualify for RWC 2019 as the Repechage Winner. This country will be the 20th, and final, participant for the World Cup and will compete in Pool B. The group has the prequalified countries of Italy, New Zealand, and South Africa.
The remaining vacancy in Pool B will go to Africa 1. In the ongoing Gold Cup competition in Africa Namibia and Kenya have been the strong performers with their match appearing likely to determine who qualifies as Africa 1 and who enters repechage as Africa 2.
Game one of the two-match Europe vs Oceania Play-Off series was also played this weekend. In Apia, Samoa came away with a 66-15 win over Germany. It leaves Germany with the task of winning the return fixture in Heidelberg by 52 points.
The prospects of Samoa missing out on qualifying for RWC 2019 are now officially virtually nil. As such Samoa can be safely said to be the Play-Off Winner, entering Pool A of RWC 2019. Samoa will join Ireland, Russia, Scotland, and hosts Japan in a pool which a range of possibilities.
The opening fixture for the Play-Off Winner will against Russia on September 24 2019 in Kumagaya. It is to be followed by facing Scotland in Kobe on September 30, Japan in Toyota on October 05, and Ireland in Fukuoka on October 12.
Canada’s place in the repechage tournament was confirmed after falling in a home-and-away series to Uruguay earlier this year. Since then complications in the Rugby Europe Championship have seen delayed matches and changes with Romania disqualified and replaced by Russia.
Decisions from World Rugby saw Germany becoming Europe 2, after beating Portugal, to set-up their series against Samoa. Now, based on results this weekend both Germany and Hong Kong are well-placed to join Canada in the global repechage tournament.
