2021 Rugby World Cup qualifying

The qualification process for the 2021 Rugby World Cup began on 9 August 2019 with 12 teams qualifying to the tournament which will be held in New Zealand.[1]

Map of qualification showing all regions

Qualification process

Following the previous World Cup, six teams received an automatic qualification berth - these berths being given to the top 7 teams (New Zealand, England, France, United States, Canada, Australia and Wales). The remaining five berths for the tournament will be awarded through regional tournaments.

The non-automatic qualification process began on 9 August 2019.

Regional qualification

Twelve nations are participating in the 2021 Rugby World Cup. Seven teams have automatically qualified by virtue of their performance at the previous tournament, leaving five teams to qualify through regional matches.

Region	Automatic qualifiers	Teams in qualifying process	Qualifying places	Qualified teams	World Cup pools
Africa	0	4	1	South Africa	C
Americas	2	2	0	Canada (AQ)  United States (AQ)	B B
Asia	0	7	1
Europe	3	6	1	England (AQ)  France (AQ)  Wales (AQ)	C C A
Oceania	2	4	1	Australia (AQ)  Fiji  New Zealand (AQ)	A C A
Repechage	0	4	1
TOTAL	7	23	5	-	-

Qualification process

Africa

Rugby Africa was granted one spot which was awarded to the winner of the Rugby Africa Women's Cup (Africa 1). The runner-up (Africa 2) would have to compete in a cross-regional repechage play-off against the South American winner. After six matches were played, it was South Africa that qualified by winning all three of their matches while Kenya competed in the South America/Africa play-off.[2]

Position	Nation	Games				Points			Table points
		Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Difference
1	South Africa	3	3	0	0	201	7	+194	15
2	Kenya	3	2	0	1	72	10	+62	10
3	Madagascar	3	0	1	2	20	123	-103	2
4	Uganda	3	0	1	2	27	141	-114	2

Americas

Rugby Americas North was not granted a spot to the World Cup, but Sudamérica Rugby allowed the winner of a match between Colombia and Brazil to compete against the runner-up of the 2019 Rugby Africa Women's Cup for a place in the repechage tournament.[3]

Test: '	9 March 2020	Colombia	23–19	Brazil	Medellín
			Report [4]

Colombia moved on to the South America/Africa play-off against Kenya, who were runners-up of the 2019 Rugby Africa Women's Cup. The match was originally planned for 18 April, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Asia

Asia Rugby was granted one spot to the highest ranked team in the 2021 Asia Rugby Women's Championship. Japan and Hong Kong, the two teams from the 2017 World Cup, are joined by the winner of the 2019 playoff for promotion to the tournament. The runner-up of the tournament will progress to the repechage.

The winner of the 2019 Asia Division I Championship would progress to the playoff for promotion to the ARWC against Kazakhstan.

	Semi-finals				Final
	19 June – Calamba
	Singapore	7
					22 June – Calamba
	China	59
					China	68
	19 June – Calamba
					Philippines	0
	Philippines	32
	India	27
					Third place
					22 June – Calamba
					Singapore	19
					India	21

As winners, China would face Kazakhstan in two matches. The team with the highest aggregate score would qualify for the ARWC.

Test:1335	2019-07-31	China	13–8	Kazakhstan	Jiujiang Stadium, Jiangxi [-/-/-]

Test:1336	2019-08-03	China	0–15	Kazakhstan	Jiujiang Stadium, Jiangxi [-/-/-]

With an aggregate score of 13–23, Kazakhstan qualified for the ARWC.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament was postponed several times, originally from 14–22 March 2020 to 8–16 May 2020, then from November 2020 to 5–13 March 2021.[5]

Position	Nation	Games				Points			Table points
		Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Difference
1	Hong Kong	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	Japan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Kazakhstan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Europe

Rugby Europe was granted one spot to the highest ranked team in a qualifying tournament consisting of Six Nations sides that hadn't already qualified automatically from the previous World Cup, and the winner of the 2020 Rugby Europe Women's Championship. As England, France and Wales had automatically qualified, the tournament will consist of Ireland, Italy and Scotland, along with winner of the European Championship consisting of the Netherlands, Russia and Spain. The runner-up of the tournament will progress to the repechage.

Position	Nation	Games				Points			Table points
		Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Difference
1	Russia	1	1	0	0	27	21	+6	5
2	Netherlands	1	0	0	1	21	27	-6	1
3	Spain	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Oceania

Oceania Rugby was granted one spot to the highest ranked team in the 2019 Oceania Rugby Women's Championship which was held in Fiji from 18 to 30 November. Six teams competed in the competition with Australia and New Zealand each sending a development team to the tournament. The six teams were separated into two groups with New Zealand A joining Samoa and Tonga in Pool A while Australia A, Fiji and Papua New Guinea went into Pool B.[6] A split pool format was used whereby each team was scheduled to play three matches, but only against teams in the opposite pool.[7]

Pool A

Position	Nation	Games				Points			Table points
		Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Difference
1	Black Ferns Dev. XV	3	3	0	0	234	0	+234	15
2	Samoa	3	1	0	2	77	65	+12	5
3	Tonga^a	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	2

Pool B

Position	Nation	Games				Points			Table points
		Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Difference
1	Australia A	3	1	1	1	27	55	-28	7
2	Fiji	2	1	0	1	26	60	-34	5
3	Papua New Guinea	2	0	0	2	12	196	-184	0

^^a Tonga withdrew from the competition shortly before their first game with Australia A due to the measles outbreak in Tonga. The match was declared a 0–0 draw.[8]

As New Zealand and Australia had already qualified for the World Cup, Samoa and Fiji met in the playoff match with the winner gaining qualification to the World Cup and the loser to play against the winner of a match between Tonga and Papua New Guinea to earn a place in the repechage tournament.

Test: 1365	30 November 2019	to RWC      Fiji	41–13	Samoa	Churchill Park, Lautoka [12/29/5]
			Report [9]

As a result, Fiji qualified for the World Cup, while Samoa awaited the winner of Tonga and Papua New Guinea.

Test: 1377	1 March 2020	Papua New Guinea	24–36	Tonga	Bava Park, Port Moresby
			Report [10]

Tonga played Samoa to determine who advanced to the repechage tournament.

Test: 1382	14 November 2020	to repechage Samoa	40–0	Tonga	The Trusts Arena, Auckland, New Zealand

As a result, Samoa became the first team to qualify for the repechage tournament.

South America/Africa play-off

A play-off between the runner-up of the 2019 Rugby Africa Women's Cup and the winner of the South America play-off between Colombia and Brazil will be played for a place in the repechage. Kenya finished in second in the RAWC, and Colombia defeated Brazil. The match was scheduled for 18 April but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Test:		to repechage Kenya	–	Colombia

Repechage

The final team to qualify for the 2021 Rugby World Cup will be decided via a repechage tournament. Four teams will compete in the tournament: the second placed teams from the regional tournaments of Asia and Europe, the winner of the play-off between the loser of the Oceania World Cup qualifying play-off and the winner of another play-off between the bottom ranked teams in the same tournament, and the winner of the South America/Africa play-off.[11]

References

1. "New Zealand to host Women's Rugby World Cup 2021". World Rugby. 15 November 2018. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
2. "Springbok Women Qualify for 2021 Women's Rugby World Cup". Johannesburg: Rugby Africa. 18 August 2019.
3. "2021 Rugby World Cup South America Qualifying". World Rugby. 5 April 2019.
4. "2021 Rugby World Cup Qualifying, Match 11". Rugby.World.Cup. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
5. "Asia Rugby Women's Championship postponed". Rugby.World.Cup. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
6. "Expanded Oceania Championship doubles as Rugby World Cup qualifier". World Rugby. 16 November 2019. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
7. Birch, John (18 November 2019). "Samoa open qualifier with big win". Scrum Queens. Archived from the original on 24 March 2020.
8. greenwood, Emma (17 November 2019). "Oceania Rugby cancel Australia A-Tonga clash after suspected measles case". rugby.com.au. Archived from the original on 20 November 2019. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
9. "Oceania Rugby Women's Championship 2019, Match 11". World.Rugby. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
10. "Tonga defeat Papua New Guinea in 2021 Rugby World Cup qualifiying". Rugby.World.Cup. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
11. "World Rugby announces new Rugby World Cup 2021 qualification pathway". World Rugby. 5 April 2019. Archived from the original on 25 March 2020. Retrieved 25 March 2020.

External links

• . RWCWomens.com