2021 Womens Rugby World Cup

[NedRugby Profile]

Spain will qualify easily. If not through this farce, then through the repechage.

I don't think this is true. They may qualify but it certainly won't be easy. They have to finish first or second in a tournament with Ireland Scotland and Italy. These three have the benefit of regular competition against quality opposition whilst Spain have to make do with thrashing Russia and the Netherlands every year plus the occasional friendly against Scotland when they are kind enough to give them a game.

[NaBUru38 Profile]

I don't understand. Here at this forum we propose to increase chances for tier 2 & 3 countries.

World Rugby announces a global repechage tournament for the 2021 Women's World Cup, and most people oppose it?

[Armchair Fan Profile]

Because it's not beneficial to the best Tier 2 and 3. And it's not only about my team, I don't see how this changes for Netherlands. Not so long ago Sweden and them were given the chance to play W6N sides, now it's science fiction.

By prioritizing regional qualification we will see some T2 look like fools at WRWC and that, even if they qualify after all because one of the berths has the name of South Africa all over it and if Argentina takes it half seriously it's got the depth in player pool to give it a try.

[johnbirch Profile]

Because it's not beneficial to the best Tier 2 and 3. And it's not only about my team, I don't see how this changes for Netherlands. Not so long ago Sweden and them were given the chance to play W6N sides, now it's science fiction.

By prioritizing regional qualification we will see some T2 look like fools at WRWC and that, even if they qualify after all because one of the berths has the name of South Africa all over it and if Argentina takes it half seriously it's got the depth in player pool to give it a try.

TBH I think WR painted themselves into a corner by giving seven automatic qualification places from the 2017 tournament while still keeping 2021 at just 12 teams. It failed to take into account the possibility that XVs might be a growing game come 2019.

In some ways you can forgive that as 2017 had the lowest entry ever, but even so it betrayed a caution, lack of ambition and risk averse attitude to the tournament. Now two years later WR are trying to grow women's test rugby and find they have just five spots for the World Cup to act as a carrot, while leaving themselves with barely a year to effectively fit a the resulting quart into a pint pot. It was bound to be messy and the repecharge is the only way out of it.

Even so for Europe they should be using Euro Championship as the qualifier (not a separate tournament) demanding that Scotland, Italy and Ireland play in it, while adding one more team (Sweden maybe?) to make it an eight team event. Not hard to work out and there is plenty of time for have, perhaps, two four team pools played this autumn. and playoffs in spring 2020. It would be a massive boost for European XVs.

But I guess those with votes on Council said that games like Ireland v Germany or Scotland v Russia would be too costly. And to hell with development.

The alternative they have come up with - especially giving Scotland a bye to the qualifier ahead of Spain - is just ridiculously unfair. And totally unjustified.

[NedRugby Profile]

I don't understand. Here at this forum we propose to increase chances for tier 2 & 3 countries.

World Rugby announces a global repechage tournament for the 2021 Women's World Cup, and most people oppose it?

I'm not against a repechage as such. I think it's a good idea. For my part I was criticising the European regional qualifiers, but johnbirch has put it much better than me. The 6N have quite deliberately put themselves outside the control of Rugby Europe. Therefore those 6N teams which need to qualify need to do so on the same basis as other teams in Europe, and the 6N cannot count as part of the qualifying process, it is not a regional competition but a private one, by invitation only. The WRWC simply needs to go back to 16 teams as it used to be.

[rey200 Profile]

I agree, going to 16 is very important. Actually the quality of teams should be better with the proposed qualifying system!

[NedRugby Profile]

Actually the quality of teams should be better with the proposed qualifying system!

I'm not sure this is true either. There is a good chance that the third and even the fourth European team might be stronger than one or two of the regional qualifiers. But I get that World Rugby wants to broaden the game globally. All the more reason to increase the competition to 16 teams.

[rey200 Profile]

What I meant is with 16 teams the quality would be higher than with 12

[Thomas Profile Website]

It will still not solve the conundrum that is South America.

[ugrugbychiclet Profile]

I posted this in the men's forum and although not about women's rugby it is unprecedented (at least in African rugby) that men's 15s competitions are cancelled and women's remain intact!

Men's Gold Cup and Silver Cup cancelled to prioritise Women's and Men's Olympic qualifiers and women's 15s WC qualifiers.

https://www.kru.co.ke/news/rugby-africa ... ournament/

[rey200 Profile]

Worst thing is: it's not going to help women's competition. Rather will help shrugging shoulders and saying: what's rugby anyways. I feel sadness, anger, disbelief and bitterness.

[ugrugbychiclet Profile]

Actually it does help women's rugby in a way - women's rugby competitions have not been cancelled, number of teams reduced or put on hold in order to support a bloated men's competition.

The Gold Cup was increased to 8 teams to spare Morocco relegation yet the reality was that there wasn't enough money to run a bigger Gold Cup, introduce a women's 15s competition and increase the number of teams in the women's and men's qualifiers. Once again the number of teams in the women's qualifiers are likely to be increased to accommodate South Africa, Morocco and Mauritius.

I wouldn't be surprised if the boys' under 20 is expanded to 6 teams so that Tunisia is not relegated ...

[sjbret Profile]

The Rugby Africa Women’s Cup is a brand new XV-a-side women’s rugby competition.
The winner of the 2019 competition will be qualified for the Rugby World Cup to be held in New Zealand in 2021.
The 2019 edition will be hosted by the South African Rugby Union in Johannesburg, South Africa between the 9th and the 17th of August 2019.
The participating teams will be: Kenya, Uganda, Madagascar and South Africa.

Madagascar isn't ranked, neither in WR rankings nor in Serge's.

http://www.rugbyafrique.com/womens-cup/

[ugrugbychiclet Profile]

The Rugby Africa Women’s Cup is a brand new XV-a-side women’s rugby competition.
The winner of the 2019 competition will be qualified for the Rugby World Cup to be held in New Zealand in 2021.
The 2019 edition will be hosted by the South African Rugby Union in Johannesburg, South Africa between the 9th and the 17th of August 2019.
The participating teams will be: Kenya, Uganda, Madagascar and South Africa.

Madagascar isn't ranked, neither in WR rankings nor in Serge's.

http://www.rugbyafrique.com/womens-cup/

A bit surprising that Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana were excluded as they have had more 15s international activity over the 3 last years than Kenya and Uganda. I guess Kenya and Uganda’s superior rankings could be used as justification but Madagascar has never played a 15s international – at least not to my knowledge.

[johnbirch Profile]

The Rugby Africa Women’s Cup is a brand new XV-a-side women’s rugby competition.
The winner of the 2019 competition will be qualified for the Rugby World Cup to be held in New Zealand in 2021.
The 2019 edition will be hosted by the South African Rugby Union in Johannesburg, South Africa between the 9th and the 17th of August 2019.
The participating teams will be: Kenya, Uganda, Madagascar and South Africa.

Madagascar isn't ranked, neither in WR rankings nor in Serge's.

http://www.rugbyafrique.com/womens-cup/

A bit surprising that Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana were excluded as they have had more 15s international activity over the 3 last years than Kenya and Uganda. I guess Kenya and Uganda’s superior rankings could be used as justification but Madagascar has never played a 15s international – at least not to my knowledge.

Have to agree that - in terms of recent activity - this makes absolutely no sense at all. Does anyone know what the selection criteria was?

Also disappointing to see it staged in South Africa when it would have been a huge boost to host it somewhere in East Africa. Lack of imagination, or just making sure that South Africa turn up?

[Thomas Profile Website]

Where in East Africa would have this been hosted and provided the infrastructure for such an event?

A line in the sand has been drawn there is an event for women now get the right teams participating.

[ugrugbychiclet Profile]

Where in East Africa would have this been hosted and provided the infrastructure for such an event?

Kenya and Uganda ...

Kenya has just hosted the 4 team under 20 men's Tier 1 and Uganda will host the under 20 men's Tier 3 next month. Uganda has hosted the 4 team senior men's 1B before ...
I think though that neither has the finances to host the women's qualifiers at short notice especially as they had already committed to hosting the under 20 competitions.

[victorsra Profile Website]

The South American 15s Championship will have indeed 3 teams: Brazil, Argentina and Colombia.

[sjbret Profile]

After the first round of the qualifications in Calamba City (Manila, Philippines) in june, the play-off to access to ARC Women next year would have happened in Almaty in july between Kazakhstan and China.
On updated Asia Rugby calendar, it seems that this play-off will happen in China (in Tang Shan City) from july 31st to August 3rd. Maybe 2 games ?
https://www.asiarugby.com/asia-rugby-calendar-2019/

[Thomas Profile Website]

China and Kazakhstan will slugged it out 31 July & Saturday 3 August in Tang Shan City, Qian’an Hebei Province in China.

https://www.rugbyasia247.com/arwc-division-1-playoffs-china-vs-kazakhstan/

[ugrugbychiclet Profile]

China and Kazakhstan will slugged it out 31 July & Saturday 3 August in Tang Shan City, Qian’an Hebei Province in China.

https://www.rugbyasia247.com/arwc-division-1-playoffs-china-vs-kazakhstan/

Strange to have 2 games and both in China instead of home and away? I guess it is cheaper to have them both at one venue?

[johnbirch Profile]

China and Kazakhstan will slugged it out 31 July & Saturday 3 August in Tang Shan City, Qian’an Hebei Province in China.

https://www.rugbyasia247.com/arwc-division-1-playoffs-china-vs-kazakhstan/

Strange to have 2 games and both in China instead of home and away? I guess it is cheaper to have them both at one venue?

If a message on Facebook is correct, Kazakhstan seems to be having problems getting visas.

[Thomas Profile Website]

This will raise some eyebrows

https://www.nrl.com/news/2019/07/18/brazil-tipped-to-cause-shock-at-womens-world-cup/

[Canalina Profile]

China and Kazakhstan will slugged it out 31 July & Saturday 3 August in Tang Shan City, Qian’an Hebei Province in China.

https://www.rugbyasia247.com/arwc-division-1-playoffs-china-vs-kazakhstan/

The exact location should be Qian'an, which is a city 80 km north east of Tangshan and 220 km east of Beijing

These are the stadium (Jiujiang Sports Center) coordinates, if you are interested
39°58'50.0"N 118°41'19.8"E

(That's the Sports Centre; I supposed they will play in that field but the matches could instead be hosted by the big stadium on the right)

The games are still not mentioned between the World Rugby fixtures but being World Cup qualifiers they will be forced to take note of them

[Canalina Profile]

China v Kazakhstan live on facebook. They're playing in the big stadium

https://www.facebook.com/asia.rugby/vid ... 904432369/