RWC Draw

[Chris B.]

Am I correct that the Rugby Europe Championship qualifier is based on the combined results of the 2017 and 2018 tournaments (I think I am)? If so, Romania is in the box seat to qualify, with Spain their main threat and most likely to go to the repercharge (and I don't think Portugal is in the hunt).

[Stargazer]

@chris-b said in RWC Draw:

Am I correct that the Rugby Europe Championship qualifier is based on the combined results of the 2017 and 2018 tournaments (I think I am)? If so, Romania is in the box seat to qualify, with Spain their main threat and most likely to go to the repercharge (and I don't think Portugal is in the hunt).

That graphic posted by @rotated is spot on!

European teams' path to the 2019 RWC:

• Automatically qualified: England, France, Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales
• One European qualifier: The highest-ranked team from the Rugby Europe Championship (excluding Georgia) will qualify – Europe 1
• One Europe/Oceania play-off qualifier: The third place team from the Pacific Nations Cup will play a home and away play-off with the winner of a qualification match between the second -ranked team in the Rugby Europe Championship (excluding Georgia) and another European team with the winner on aggregate qualifying for RWC 2019. The loser will qualify for the repechage tournament – Play-off 1
• One repechage qualifier: The repechage tournament will feature four teams playing in a round-robin format with the winners qualifying for RWC 2019 – Repechage tournament

According to this graphic and the info on this page, the winner of the combined 2017 (1st leg) and 2018 (2nd leg) of the Rugby Europe Championship (= level 1 below the 6 Nations) will qualify as Europe 1.
This was the ranking after the first leg:

For argument's sake, assume Romania win the 2nd leg as well and qualify as Europe 1; and Spain finishes second, then Spain will have to play a qualification match against the winner of Portugal v Czech Republic. So Portugal is definitely still in the hunt, but they need to beat the Czechs first.
Portugal qualified for this match as the winner of the 2017 European Trophy (= level 2 below the 6 Nations). The Czech Republic, winner of the 2017 Conference 1 (= level 3 below the 6 Nations), qualified for this match via a path that is so complicated that I'm not going to attempt to describe it.

The winner of that last European qualification match has to play home and away play-off matches against the third placed Pacific Nations Cup team, Samoa. Whoever wins the aggregate of these two matches, qualifies as Play-off 1 and will end up in Pool A. The loser of this match will go through to the Repechage tournament.

[Chris B.]

@stargazer said in RWC Draw:

The Czech Republic, winner of the 2017 Conference 1 (= level 3 below the 6 Nations), qualified for this match via a path that is so complicated that I'm not going to attempt to describe it.

An outrageously poor attitude!

So results in the Europe Championship vs Georgia aren't counted. That means Romania is less in the box seat than I thought.

[Chris B.]

Incidentally, I think Mitch was coaching that USA team that gave Canada a drubbing. Seems he's done a decent job there - but, he's gone to the Bulls now.

[Stargazer]

@chris-b said in RWC Draw:

@stargazer said in RWC Draw:

The Czech Republic, winner of the 2017 Conference 1 (= level 3 below the 6 Nations), qualified for this match via a path that is so complicated that I'm not going to attempt to describe it.

An outrageously poor attitude!

So results in the Europe Championship vs Georgia aren't counted. That means Romania is less in the box seat than I thought.

This was the table including Georgia. Romania ended the year at the top of the table, because they had beaten Georgia 8 to 7.

[Tregaskis]

@stargazer Yeah but that was in Bucharest. Georgia will smash the Romanians at Dimitri Kirakashyashmashsmashvili Stadium in Tbilisi.

[Higgins]

@tregaskis The signwriters must have been in danger of getting RSI when painting that name on the building.

[Stargazer]

@tregaskis Are you sure that game will be played there? I thought it was in the Davit Kolecrushcrushthemedze Stadium?

[Tregaskis]

RWC 2019 draw is at 7.30pm tomorrow (3.30pm Japan time).

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[Tregaskis]

@tregaskis The fixtures list, I mean.

[Stargazer]

Live stream:

[Stargazer]

NZT = Japan Time + 4 hours

[Rugger Quizzes]

Game against Boks in Yokohama should be off the charts with a full 70,000 odd stadium there.

Oita Dome a decent size but a fair way out of town. Going to target the Yokohama and Oita games for tickets and hopefully catch a few other Kyushu Games as well.

Toyota is nearish Nagoya, never been there

[Rugger Quizzes]

Plenty of time for boozing after Tokyo game (pretty sure stadium is way out in West Tokyo so a bit of a hike)

[Bovidae]

A big gap between the SA game and game 2, but only 4 days break for game 3.

[Stargazer]

[Rugger Quizzes]

@bovidae said in RWC Draw:

A big gap between the SA game and game 2, but only 4 days break for game 3.

By design I guess given that they aren't likely to be particularly strong opponents.

[Gunner]

@bovidae said in RWC Draw:

A big gap between the SA game and game 2, but only 4 days break for game 3.

Maybe trying to make things fair for all?
The tier 2 and 3 teams have consistently had these short turn arounds in world cups, while the tier 1 teams have been a protected species on that front...

Fair’s fair!

[Bovidae]

@gunner

No problem for me, and WR had said they would try to do this for future RWCs. It was just an observation.

[Crucial]

Not a great draw. We have to go in firing to knock SA away then keep interested for the rest of the pool round.
Looks like we will know early on (the day after the SA game) who the likely opponent in the quarters will be as Scotland face off to Ireland on the first weekend. Barring Japan capitalising on being at home the loser of that Scotland/Ireland game should be who we face.