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(thumbnail USA or Chile)
(thumbnail USA or Chile)
World numbers 20 and 21 faced off in the Chilean national stadium for the first of both sides’ summer fixtures. From the first whistle it was clear who was the superior team as Chile’s pace and precision left the Romanians clutching at thin air. The scoreline was 23-13 at half time, Romania only just in touch thanks to a 35th minute try from winger Matei, but the hosts pulled away in the final quarter with another two tries. The game ended 40-16 to Chile whose very impressive performance moved them into the world top 20.
The irony is that Romania have already qualified for the Rugby World Cup in 2027 thanks to their 3rd place in Rugby Europe, whereas Chile will likely face an uphill battle to get to the world cup thanks to the new allocations for qualification spots that sees South America get just 1 automatic place. They will need to either unseat 17th ranked Uruguay or win a play-off series to repeat their appearance at the 2023 showpiece. Romania will travel to Uruguay next week, who they lost to at home in November last year.
Remaining in South America, 28th ranked Brazil played a game against Argentina’s B side, the Argentina XV. For those who don’t know, Argentina operate one of the most active B teams in the world and play regular games against emerging nations. Brazil are major outsiders for the world cup in 2027 (unlike their women’s team, who will be at the World Cup in England later this year) and they went down very easily to the visitors who were 31-5 up at half time. The 2nd half was far more respectable for Brazil as the teams scored 2 tries each, but a 17-45 final score only highlights the gap between Argentina and the rest in South American rugby. Brazil’s next match is against Chile in 2 weeks.
Heading north to the USA, the men’s Eagles defeated Rugby Europe 5th placed team Belgium in comfortable fashion. Familiar face AJ MacGinty was struggling from the tee but still guided his side to a 14-3 lead at half time and a 36-10 lead with 5 minutes to go, before Belgium manage a late consolation. Still, the USA dominated all the key stats of the match and are now on a 4 game win streak stretching back to their narrow loss to Samoa in last year’s Pacific Nations Cup.
They face a fascinating match with Rugby Europe runners up Spain next week. Spain are a rugby nation on the up and could be set to follow the USA in host a world cup in the 2030s. The two nations are currently ranked 15th and 16th in the world and could switch position depending on how the rest of their summers go. Meanwhile, Belgium will head north to face Canada.
This was a fascinating game. For those who aren’t aware, Canada women are the most gravity-defying rugby team in the world. They are currently ranked 2nd in the world, behind only England’s Red Roses, and have managed to go unbeaten against the New Zealand Black Ferns in their last 2 games. However, they are still a vastly under resourced team with no professional system and their players are currently on a crowd funding mission to help them get through the World Cup later this year.
They kicked off their warm-ups for the world cup against South Africa in Pretoria. Whilst South Africa men are currently dominating world rugby, South Africa women are playing catch-up; They are currently ranked just 12th in the world. It was a predictably straight-forward 50-20 win for the Canadians, but what made it interesting was how South Africa tested them in ways they were not used to.
The Springbok women’s may still have work to do on their skills and structures but their athleticism is something to behold. Like the men’s side, their backline is laden with scrum-cap wearing speedsters and their scrum was on a level the Canadians could not cope with. There was even a delightful try from a spontaneous maul! Without doubt, Canada’s physios will be cursing whoever scheduled this match.
Finally, Hong Kong secured their first ever rugby world cup appearance with a brutal 70-22 win away in South Korea. Thanks to the new qualification format, everyone expected them to wrap up the Asia’s qualification sport with ease and they duly delivered. Some are concerned about how they may perform when they arrive in Australia in 2027, given they were losing to Brazil a few months ago, but there is no doubt they are the best team in Asia (outside Japan, of course).
Behind them, the UAE have now overtaken South Korea as Asia’s 2nd best nation. They will contest a play-off against the 2nd top Rugby Africa team for a shot at the world cup. The African Championship kicks off this week with world cup regulars Namibia looking to reclaim their title from Zimbabwe, who will be highly motivated to secure their own first ever qualification.