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Well, with under a year to go before the great Rugby feast in France, I flt it appropriate that we should start looking forward to how the Tournament is shaping up, what the Pools are, who the new faces (if any) will be an of course, if the All Blacks can get that four year monkey off their collective backs!
I have displayed the Pools below with the matches/Nations still to be decided however my understanding of the Repechage Qualification is a little scratchy, feel free to let me know so I can update the format if wrong.
POOL A:
England
South Africa
Samoa
USA
Repechage 2 (Winner of Morocco v Portugal to play Uruguay)
POOL B:
Australia
Wales
Fiji
Canada
Japan
POOL C:
New Zealand
Scotland
Italy
Romania
Repechage 1 (Korea v Tonga)
POOL D:
France
Ireland
Argentina
Georgia
Namibia
Namibia win leaves Morocco a mountain to climb
Namibia have given themselves a great chance of reaching France next year by beating Morocco 25-7 in the first leg of their World Cup qualifying final on home soil in Windhoek.
Namibia's victory means that Morocco will need to win by at least 19 points when the two teams meet in Casablanca on 11 November.
The winner over the two legs will qualify for the Rugby World Cup and join France, Ireland and Argentina in Pool D.
Portugal and Georgia on collision course
In Europe Portugal and Georgia both scored priceless victories to keep alive their hopes of a World Cup place.
Portugal beat Russia 26-23 to finish second in Pool behind Italy. They now face the Georgians after they overcame Spain on home soil 37-23 to finish second in the other Round 5 pool behind Romania.
The sides meet on 11 and 25 November with the winner qualifying as Europe 3. The loser will enter the répechage rounds and play the loser of Namibia and Morocco for the right to face Uruguay for one of the two final spots.
Asian qualifying finals postponed
The International Rugby Board Executive Committee today announced the postponement of the 2006 Asian Rugby Football Tournament that was scheduled to be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka on November 18-25. The decision was taken due to the current security situation in Sri Lanka.
Furthermore, the Rugby World Cup Board has determined that the Asia Rugby World Cup 2007 Round 3 Qualification matches between Japan, Korea and Hong Kong – that were due to be played as part of the Asian Rugby Football Tournament – should be rescheduled.
The Rugby World Cup Board will make a decision in the coming days regarding alternative arrangements for the completion of the Asia Round 3 qualification matches.
As the governing body of the Game the IRB has wider obligations that require it to take into account security issues relating to participants. In this respect the IRB sought advice on the security situation in Sri Lanka following concerns expressed by several Participating Unions.
The recommendation made to the IRB was that in the present climate the tournament should not go ahead. The IRB and the Asian Rugby Football Union (the IRB’s Regional Association in the region) will continue to monitor the situation and a decision on the rescheduling of the tournament will be made at an appropriate time
The 12-team tournament was to involve Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Arabian Gulf, Thailand, Chinese Taipei, India and China.