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Filling in the gaps in the draw for the 2019 World Cup
There are a few holes in the draw for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan. James Harrington has done his best to fill them.
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There you have it – the draw for the 2019 World Cup in Japan is complete.
At least, most of it. Eight teams have yet to qualify. And the last vacant slot in Pool B won’t be filled until November 2018, following a four-team repechage competition.
However, to offer a hint of how the pools may look two years and four months from now, teams from each of those ongoing qualifying tournaments are listed in brackets, selected from their respective tournaments according to current World Rugby rankings.
So, this is how the pools could look in 2019, and what fans could look forward to in each of the four pools:
Pool A – The Party Pool
Teams: Ireland, Scotland, Japan, Europe 1 (Romania), Play-off winner (Samoa)
If you’re going to Japan 2019 and want to have a good time, this is the pool to follow. The on-field entertainment will be pretty good, but the craic in and around the grounds will be off the scale.
The most serious rugby-related issue for those sides looking to qualify for the knockout phase will be avoiding New Zealand in the quarter-finals. As the world champions don’t do group-phase tactics beyond win all their games, that’s relatively simple. Whoever finishes second in Pool A will face an All Blacklash in the last eight. Of course, whoever tops Pool A and avoids New Zealand can expect to face South Africa, who must have improved by September 2019, surely.
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At this stage, everyone expects two of Ireland, Scotland and hosts Japan to qualify. But two difficult sides could fill those vacant slots.
Pool B – The Foregone Conclusion Pool
Teams: New Zealand, South Africa, Italy, Africa 1 (Namibia), Repechage winner (Spain)
Much has been made of the fact that Japan 2019 will be the first time that New Zealand and South Africa have ever met in the pool phase of a World Cup. But, let’s be honest, it’s not as if they never meet.
Beyond the Rugby Championship sides, the only question is: which side will finish third and qualify for the 2023 World Cup in Ireland, or France, or even South Africa? This far out from the tournament, Italy have to be very early favourites.
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Pool C – The Official Pool of Death™
Teams: England, France, Argentina, Americas 1 (USA), Oceania 2 (Tonga)
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England coach Eddie Jones doesn’t like the ‘Pool of Death’ cliche – “Nobody’s going to die,” he said when the question was put to him soon after the draw was made. Which is all the more reason to use it, even though it is a cliche. Besides, the consensus of opinion is that Pool C was not the World Cup draw that England, Argentina or France were looking for.
No wonder. Three tier one sides with knockout-phase ambitions, and just two quarter-final slots up for grabs equals disappointment for one of them. England know all about that, after 2015. Not that it gets much easier later on in the competition. Whoever wins this pool is on a semi-final collision course with New Zealand.
That’s before considering the two unfilled slots. Oceania 2, in particular, could cause a few problems.
Pool D – The Pool of Wince
Teams: Australia, Wales, Georgia, Oceania 1 (Fiji), Americas 2 (Uruguay)
Oceania 1 could make this pool tougher than it would otherwise be for tier one sides Australia and Wales. Fiji are currently the highest-ranked of the Pacific Island sides, but there’s not much between them, Samoa (who, we’ve got as Play-off winners in a shootout match between the third-placed side from Oceania and the second-ranked team in the Rugby Europe Championship – based on World Rugby’s current rankings) and Tonga. Any one of those three could give the early knockout-phase favourites a serious run for their money.
After the Pools
The knockout phase of the 2019 World Cup looks like this:
Quarter-finals
QF1: Winners Pool B v runners up Pool A
QF2: Winners Pool C v runners up Pool D
QF3: Winners Pool D v runners up Pool C
QF4: Winners Pool A v runners up Pool B
Semi Finals
SF1: Winner QF1 v Winner QF2
SF2: Winner QF3 v Winner QF4
We’ll leave you to work out the permutations that end with your preferred country lifting the Webb Ellis trophy.
And, in case you want to know, here’s how those eight empty slots will be filled.
Europe 1 qualifier: The highest-ranked team from the Rugby Europe Championship (excluding already qualified Georgia)
Oceania 1 and 2 qualifiers: Two teams qualify from a Pacific Nations Cup tournament played on a home-and-away basis during June 2016 and 2017
Play-off qualifier: The third-placed team from the Pacific Nations Cup play a two-leg home-and-away play-off against the second-ranked team in the Rugby Europe Championship (excluding already qualified Georgia). The winner on aggregate will join Pool A at the World Cup in Japan.
Americas 1 and 2 qualifiers: Canada and USA will play home-and-away, with the winner on aggregate qualifying for Japan 2019. The loser will then play home-and-away against the top-ranked South American team (excluding Argentina) with the winner on aggregate qualifying. The loser of this match qualifies for a four-team repechage tournament.
Africa 1 qualifier: The winner of the Rugby Africa Championship will qualify. The runner-up qualifies for the repechage tournament
Asia/Oceania play-off for repechage place: The highest-ranked team from the Asia Rugby Championship (excluding Japan) will play home-and-away against the winner of the Oceania Cup, with the winner on aggregate qualifying for the repechage tournament
Repechage qualifier: The repechage tournament will feature four teams playing in a round-robin format with the winners qualifying for that Pool B slot at the 2019 World Cup.
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Comments on RugbyPass
The Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to comments