With all the interest in the Rugby League World Cup being shown at the moment an the Football World Cup qualifier result being published, people have asked me “what’s happening with the Rugby World Cup, as nothing is being heard?” Well, the 2011 qualifier games are being played now, and have been for the past year.
In Africa, several series have been held and is now down to the final four, Namibia, Ivory Coast, Tunisia and Uganda. The final series will be played early next year with the winner going straight to the finals and the runner-up into the reperchages.
In Asia, the Asian Five Nation tournament has been played and the top four, Japan, korea, Hong Kong and Kazakhstan retain their positions whilst Arabian Gulf has been relegated to first division.
The first division series will be played in November between China, Taiwan, Sri Lanka and Singapore with the winner joining the Asia Five Nations division. Next year these five nations will battle it out with the winner through to New Zealand and the second place getting another chance in the reperchages.
The Oceania nations Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Cook Islands will play each other next year for the right to proceed to the finals. The other Pacific Island nations have already been eliminated in earlier qualifying series.
Trinidad & Tobago won the mainly West Indies nations NAWIRA group whilst Brazil won the CONSURB group ahead of Paraguay, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. Earlier in October, these two played home and away matches with Brazil winning both, 31-8 away and 24-12 at home. Next year Brazil will play Uruguay and Chile in a series in Uruguay with the top two progressing to a final series with Canada and USA for the right to represent the Americas zone.
In Europe, it is much more complex because of the number of nations and the fact that Europe is alloted three places. Several games have been played since September in the second and third divisions. T
he final winners of the various pools will not be known until next year.
For example, last weekend, Sweden beat Latvia, 21-5 and Croatia beat Malta, 18-16, in two second division matches. This weekend there are three second divisions games being played, Belgium/Ukraine, Netherlands/Croatia and Sweden/Malta as well as a third division match between Denmark and Slovenia.
The first division matches have not started yet. These lower division teams are strive to meet the likes of Georgia, Russia, Romania, Portugal, Spain and Germany and be joined by the Six Nation team, Italy forthe final play-offs sometime next year.
The home team usually produces posters to promote the games in their countries and shown are two samples of them.
So let it be known that the countdown to the RWC2011 is proceeding well and the games are running to schedule. It is just that it is hard know what is happening when the papers won’t print the results.
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