RUGBY WORLD CUP

News | Fixtures

World Cup qualifying wrap

Friday 27th June 2008

Slowly but surely around the world, the tiniest of rugby nations are scrapping it out on home and foreign fields, hoping for the elusive set of results that might carry them to New Zealand 2011 and glory.

Trinidad and Tobago took the Caribbean championship in April to become the first team to progress to the next round of qualifying, a match against the winners of South America's Consur B tournament, in a two-legged play-off later this year.

In Africa, Cameroon beat Nigeria 26-6 in order to progress to the African Championships (CAR). They now join Tunisia and Kenya in a Pool.

Botswana's victory over Swaziland on May 17 has put them into the Pool with Madagascar and Uganda.

The other two Pools comprise the Ivory Coast, Zambia, and Morocco in one, and Zimbabwe, Senegal, and Namibia in another.

In Asia, Thailand's 30-7 defeat of Malaysia in Bangkok clinched them the Asian Five Nations Division Two title, and also secured their progress to the next round of qualifying.

Of the four Division One sides: Chinese Taipei, China, Singapore and Sri Lanka, the one that finishes bottom of the table in November will be knocked out of RWC qualifying as well.

Finally, In South America, Consur B the race for who gets to meet Trinidad and Tobago in that play-off is nearing its conclusion.

Brazil and Paraguay have both got through two of their four matches unbeaten and have notched up some handy wins, and are set to meet in a winner-takes-all match on Sunday.

The five-match tournament is crammed into ten days, and is all being played in the Paraguayan capital Ascuncion. Brazil must beat Peru on Thursday while Paraguay must overcome Colombia. Neither team is expected to slip up though, making Sunday's clash a tense affair.