No joy for Africa

Sports Reporter
THERE was no joy for Africa following the 2019 Rugby World Cup qualifier process that was announced yesterday with the top sides on the continent still expected to fight for one slot at the quadrennial tournament.

Only South Africa have an automatic ticket to the Rugby World Cup by virtue of them being a tier one side and that they also made it into the top three of their World Cup group game leaving the rest of the African sides to battle for one slot.

Zimbabwe and Namibia are the only other African teams with more appearances at the Rugby World Cup, the Sables with two appearances, first at the inaugural edition in 1987 and in 1991 but these were on invitation as few countries competitively played the game then. Namibia have been at the same tournament five times in a row since the 1999 edition of the global competition and their closest rival in the qualifiers has been Zimbabwe.

And so the story will still be the same for the 2019 qualifiers where the two teams are tipped to once again dominate the qualifiers, but Kenya may not be ruled out as they are slowly becoming a force to reckon with in African rugby.