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Ten rugby internationals on four continents

Roar Guru
12th May, 2014
37

Rugby World Cup spots were up for grabs during the 10 international games played around the world on four continents last weekend.

The Asia Five Nations also doubles as Rugby World Cup qualifiers to determine Asia’s World Cup place and which nation is in the repechages.

In Nagoya, Japan scored 20 tries to one to hammer the struggling Sri Lanka side, 132-10.

In the other top division game, Hong Kong, at home, overcame a strong South Korean outfit, 39-6. Early in the first half, South Korea led 6-0 but could not hold out a fitter and bigger Hong Kong. Handling errors by Korea did not help their cause either.

With two rounds remaining, South Korea, Sri Lanka and the Philippines are now eliminated. Both Japan and Hong Kong are undefeated. They will meet in the final round in Tokyo on May 24 with the winner representing Asia and the loser entering the Rugby World Cup repechages.

An Asia division one match was played as a curtain-raiser in Hong Kong between Kazakhstan and Chinese Taipei.

Kazakhstan hit its straps from the start and were too big and fast for the Taiwanese side. Kazakh winger Ivan Olkhovsky, making his debut, scored 26 points through two tries, two penalties and three conversions. Taipei scored late in the match but were well beaten, 37-8.

In the same division, two weeks ago, Singapore beat United Arab Emirates 30-13. These results, plus the Asia Five Nations, means that in the revamped Asian competitions, Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea will contest the Asia Three Nations, while the new division one will consist of Sri Lanka, Philippines, Kazakhstan and Singapore.

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The other Rugby World Cup qualifier was held in Amsterdam, where Netherlands hosted Germany.

This was an elimination match and was witnessed by a small crowd of 1,293. The game never reached great heights and a scoreless second half meant Germany’s 17-7 half time lead remained the full time result.

The next elimination game will be held in Hamburg, where Germany will meet Russia. The loser is eliminated and the winner progresses to the repechage stage. Russia is favoured to proceed.

The only other games in Europe were two Division 2D matches. Norway beat Greece, 45-23, and Luxembourg defeated Finland, 27-7. For next year’s series, Luxembourg will be promoted to 2C and bottom-placed Finland will be relegated to Division 3. The new teams are Bulgaria, who was relegated from 2C, and Turkey, who was promoted from Division 3.

The CONSUR Rugby Championship in South America was thrown into confusion two weeks ago when Brazil beat Chile. It was assumed that Chile would qualify for the next stage. This weekend’s results add to the confusion.

As expected, Uruguay easily disposed of an under-strength Chile, 55-13, in Montevideo. However, in Asuncion, hosts Paraguay beat a quickly improving and favoured Brazil, 31-24. This meant that Uruguay was undefeated and the other three beat each other.

Paraguay had the best points difference and will join Argentina and Uruguay to play for the CONSUR Cup. Brazil will remain in this division next year while the worst points difference side, Chile, will have to play a promotion-relegation series against the winner of the B division, probably Colombia or Venezuela.

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Further north, the North America Caribbean Rugby Association (NACRA) got under way. This association consists of the Caribbean islands, Guyana, a South American country on the Caribbean Sea, Mexico and the USA South. Canada is also a member but does not enter in this competition. It is split into north and south zones with the winner of each playing the final.

For a north zone game, Bermuda travelled to Atlanta to meet last year’s winner, USA South. Once again, the Americans prevailed with USA South beating Bermuda, 33-6. The south zone game was played in Curacao. The hosts, Curacao, smashed the visitors from St Lucia with a 56-7 victory.

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