A little over 8 months ago now, the announcement was made that the Rugby World Cup, 2021, was to be postponed and played in 2022. I'm sure many of you are aware, but the #icare movement was sparked from this, as people were claiming that no one cared about women's rugby or the fact it was postponed.
Anyway, this isn't the point of the blog, to complain about the misogynists, but rather to highlight what has happened since then, and how the pre-tournament qualifiers have gone.
Of course, before going into any tournament you have to ensure that you qualify for it, and that's what many teams have been focused on over the last few months. 7 teams were already pre-qualified thanks to their efforts at the 2017 world cup. Those teams being: New Zealand, England, Canada, Wales, France, Australia, and the USA.
However, several teams weren't already qualified, and have gone through other qualifiers to fight for their spot at the RWC 21.
In Europe, Italy has qualified after winning that pool, and Scotland has made it through to the final qualifier, where they'll try to earn their place. This does mean that unfortunately, Spain and Ireland have failed to qualify, which is absolutely heartbreaking.
Japan, Hong Kong, and Kazakhstan will face each other with the top team qualifying as Asia 1 and the runner-up entering the Final Qualification Tournament. None of these games have been played yet.
In Africa, the mighty South Africans have made it straight through the additional qualifiers to ensure they'll be in New Zealand next year, and Kenya has qualified for the final qualification playoff to see if they will earn the right to be in contention for the world cup trophy next year.
Over in South America, Colombia faced Brazil in a great battle, with Colombia just holding on to win the game 23-19. This does mean that Brazil will not be at the RWC next year.
Kenya faced Colombia in Nairobi to keep one of their world cup dreams alive, and Colombia came out on top after a hard-drawn battle to end the game with a one-point deficit, 16-15. This means that Colombia has now qualified for the final qualifier for the world cup.
The final qualification tournament has not yet been played, however, the teams who are up against each other are Scotland, Samoa, Colombia, and one of Japan, Hong Kong, or Kazakhstan, yet to be confirmed.
Here's what the pools are looking like so far:
All in all, the tournament is looking pretty exciting already, I know I can't wait to watch it next year! Maybe the postponement was a blessing in disguise to something absolutely brilliant next year?
In the meantime, make sure to watch the Autumn Internationals for these teams, I myself am heading to Sandy Park on Halloween to watch England vs New Zealand, this might give an example of what the tournament next year might play out like!
Comments