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RWC 2015 Qualifiying

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Little Guy said:
Was Namibia at full strength Psychic?
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I couldn't find the actual starting XV for the Madagascar match, but this is the touring squad for the two matches this week, with the starting XV for their warm up match against SA Universities listed below.

Players who were part of the World Cup squad are in bold. I know their talisman Jacques Burger was injured, and a few others from the World Cup squad in Hugo Horn, Jané du Toit, Wacca Kazombiaze Jacques Nieuwenhuis and Piet van Zyl have retired. But I don't know enough about Namibian rugby to know why some other absentees like Rohan Kitshoff, Conrad Marais, Danie van Wyk were out due to injury, being dropped, or not released by their clubs.

Anyway when the qualifying resumes next year Namibia are now one loss away from elimination from the Rugby World Cup, Morocco are eliminated.

1. Johnny Redelinghuys
2. Callie Swanepoel
3. Collen Smith
4. Henk Franken
5. Heinz Koll
6. Tinus du Plessis (captain)
7. Morné Blom
8. PJ van Lill
9. Eugene Jantjies (vice captain)
10. Theuns Kotzé
11. Chrysander Botha
12. Rodger Thompson
13. Anthony Jevu
14. Danie Dames
15. Justin Nel

Martin Goeieman
Shaun du Preez
Herald Kasera
Petrus Human
Arthur Bouwer
Lean Stoop
Godwin Walters
Herman Ströh
Shaun Esterhuizen
 
I forgot that the reason Namibia and Morocco were in this pool was due to their withdrawing from last years Africa Cup Division A without competing. While it would be interesting to see a new qualifier from Africa I hope we don't see a consistently weaker side than Namibia slip in and get absolutely smashed in the pool stages.

Maybe now that the Namibians are up against the ropes next season they will be able to convince clubs to release all the neccesary players, and I'm sure Burger will move heaven and earth to make sure he is there.
 
Little Guy said:
I forgot that the reason Namibia and Morocco were in this pool was due to their withdrawing from last years Africa Cup Division A without competing. While it would be interesting to see a new qualifier from Africa I hope we don't see a consistently weaker side than Namibia slip in and get absolutely smashed in the pool stages.

Maybe now that the Namibians are up against the ropes next season they will be able to convince clubs to release all the neccesary players, and I'm sure Burger will move heaven and earth to make sure he is there.
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Yes, perhaps Namibia assumed they could get through without some players. Next year they will have to beat Senegal again or their out, and Senegal nearly beat them this year so they ought to pick a stronger team.

I agree about your first point by the way, it would be great for the African region to get stronger, but Namibia's strongest XV gets thumped enough as it is, if a team gets through by beating a weakened Namibia side then come the World Cup the scores would get messy, and in a worst case scenario some of the players could get seriously hurt by professional sides.
 
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psychic duck said:
Yes, perhaps Namibia assumed they could get through without some players. Next year they will have to beat Senegal again or their out, and Senegal nearly beat them this year so they ought to pick a stronger team.
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There are only a few players in that squad that caught my eye at the RWC, Koll, Kotze, Botha, Jantjies and Du Plessis are players that could make it into several Tier Two sides and most of thes guys have(or will) pro contracts.

For the others, Franken got less than an hour of game time, Van Lil, also was mainly used as a sub and I really don't remember him doing anything of impact. Dames did well against Fiji but than seemed fatigued(possibly due to the Bullcrap schedule Namibia faced) in every other game I saw him in and was subbed realtively early. Redelinghuys was always going to be in tough during many of those games and worked his butt off but I don't think he's a great player.

I haven't heard of any of the non RWC guys in that lineup though looks like they were mainly used as subs. I've always found with Namibia that there are 6-10 players I think that range from OK to good(with Burger being fantastic), but the depth is shockingly poor, probably due to the limited player base and the lack of professional oppourtunities and lack of world class training facilities.
 
What I am going to say now will maybe cause some frowns but what if some African countries take advantage of the massive depth South Africa has? I think a lot of players would be honored to represent Namibia for instance. There's a lot of players who will never reach the Springboks but are way better than the players in the squad now.
 
TRF_Ezequiel said:
What I am going to say now will maybe cause some frowns but what if some African countries take advantage of the massive depth South Africa has? I think a lot of players would be honored to represent Namibia for instance. There's a lot of players who will never reach the Springboks but are way better than the players in the squad now.
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You make a good point Ezequiel, I've also wondered why there aren't more Vodacom Cup/Currie Cup standard South Africans who opt to play for Namibia, especially considering players who aren't SA eligible aren't as frowned upon as they are in the NZ domestic system where most players who decide to play for a Pacific Island side move to Japan or Europe and are very rarely ever in a Super Rugby squad.

I don't know who exactly, but I assume there are a fair few South Africans who are eligible for other countries in Africa, especially Namibia and Zimbabwe. Jaco Engels I think is eligible for Namibia but has never played, Pieter Dixon could play for Zimbabwe, Daniel Adongo could play for Kenya are ones I know of and there are certainly more who have parents/grandparents/born in another African country.

There is one case that could possibly explain the absence of South Africans in the Namibian team though. In 2007, hooker Skipper Badenhorst decided to play for Namibia just before the World Cup but after a couple of caps and was named in the squad, he pulled out of the squad and decided to play in the Currie Cup for the Sharks as they would pay him more, the tournament which happened at the same time as the 2007 World Cup. He has never been in the Namibia squad again.

Presumably lots would only put their hand up for selection at World Cup time as well, and not bother for fixtures against Senegal and Madagascar as well.
 
I see Anton Bresler as a potential Springbok, but Meyer didn't even have him in his training squad.
Wonder what Bresler considers himself; he was born in Namibia but went to school in Durban.
 
@ PD: Yeah, but I think that players who earned the qualification to the World Cup should be playing in the World Cup. It would suck to qualify for a tournament and be just pushed aside for better players once the tournament is there.
 
welshglory said:
Lol only in Africa
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Seems rather "only in IRB", as the score on this site now reads:
[TABLE="class: table_main"]
<tbody>[TR="class: odd"]
[TD]AFRC/RWCQ
[/TD]
[TD="width: 18%"] 08 JUL 2012[/TD]
[TD="width: 15%"] Morocco[/TD]
[TD="width: 15%"] 25 - 26[/TD]
[TD="width: 15%"] Senegal
[/TD]
[TD="width: 22%"] Mahamasina Stadium[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]
 
I only see people from NZ and Australia making the trip. Making some Americans and Canadians but The European teams and South Africa won't be represented very well.
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Compared to NZ, which is literally on the other side of the world from Britain, Japan is easy to get to from European rugby fans.
 
Here are the match sheets published by Confederation Africaine de Rugby (CAR) for Division 1B featuring champions Madagascar, runner up Namibia, 3rd place Senegal, and relegated Morocco.
http://www.confederation-africaine-rugby.com/images/Pdf/africacup2012groupe1b.pdf

They are messy, but it gets the job done. Hopefully now the IRB inputs this data soon into the website, and it will be a little bit cleaner of a presentation.
 
Here is a post-match interview from Namibia-Madagascar, from a Namibian perspective.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZhYAzYwsMs

And a good highlight reel of the game, seems like match was televised!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaiEe-gNK-A&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU2MXXBtzzg

Namibia's defense looks so poor, Madagascar was beating them to the gain line everytime, Namibia just came up at half speed and let Madagascar dictate what they wanted to do, and Namibia looked often too disorganized.
 
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A highlight package of some of the African qualifying...

 
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As I believe there are no RWC qualifying matches for almost two months now after today's games in Bangkok and Tunis, I thought it might be a good time to have a summary of the situation for the moment*. I'll go through every continent and list the teams which still have the chance to qualify for England 2015, together with some comments and my (wishful) tips for qualifiers.

Africa
Already qualified: South Africa
Qualifier places: 1
Repechage places: 1

Still in hunt: Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya, Madagascar, Tunisia, Namibia, Senegal, Botswana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Mauritius, Zambia, Nigeria (13 teams)

The final qualification for RWC2015 will be the CAR Division 1A tournament in 2014, with the winner of the four team draw going to England and the runner-up having one more chance in the repechage. Div 1A tournament for 2013 sees Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya and Madagascar trying to avoid being last-placed and therefore eliminated, while Tunisia, Namibia, Senegal and one team to be decided in a few weeks will battle for the right to take part in the 2014 tournament. Namibia has been a regular at world cups for some time and a heavy favourite to qualify this time too, but they were beaten by Madagascar and will have to fight for promotion to Div 1A first next year, so we might see some other team book a trip to England. I think many of us (me included) will root for Madagascar due to the unbelievable passion for the game in this country, as can be seen in a link just a few posts above. Come on, 40 000 people cheering on Tier 3 team? They really deserve it! The current (decided today) Africa Cup champions are Zimbabwe and they can have some expectations to qualify. Overall, I think both the qualifier place and repechage place will go to two teams among Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya (their sevens team is very impressive, I wonder if they could translate it to XV), Madagascar and Namibia.

My tip:
Qualifier: Madagascar
Repechage: Kenya


Americas
Already qualified: Argentina
Qualifier places: 2
Repechage places: 1

Still in hunt: Canada, USA, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Paraguay, Peru, Bermuda (10 teams)

The two North American Tier 2 countries play directly for a qualifier spots, with the loser still getting a second chance versus the best team from the rest of America. The road for South American teams is much more difficult, especially for those competing in CONSUR B tournament (Colombia, Venezuela, Paraguay and Peru) - they have to win this tournament, then beat Bermuda (away, unless it's Paraguay who win), then beat Brazil for a right to play in CONSUR A in 2013, then win this tournament, and finally beat the loser of Canada/USA in home & away series! So probably only the repechage place is a realistic target for them, and will probably be contested between Uruguay and Chile, who made a very big progress lately.

My tip:
Qualifiers: Canada, USA
Repechage: Chile


Asia
Already qualified: none
Qualifier places: 1
Repechage places: 1

Still in hunt: Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, Philippines, Kazakhstan, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Thailand (9 teams)

Here, Japan is 99,9% certain to take the qualifier place without any trouble. The battle for the repechage place should be very tight though. In this year's Asian Five Nations it was South Korea who took second place behind Japan, with the other traditionally strong team in Hong Kong, but I think one should notice how rapidly the Philippines team is improving. This year they won Asian 5N Division 1 despite being the lowest ranked team in the competition, and only 3 years ago they played in 5N Div 3! So as they earned the promotion to next year's main 5N tournament, they went up four level of competition in four years, now that's progress!

My tip:
Qualifier: Japan
Repechage: Philippines


Europe
Already qualified: England, France, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Italy
Qualifier places: 2
Repechage places: 1

Still in hunt: Georgia, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Ukraine, Moldova, Poland, Sweden, Croatia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Switzerland, Malta, Denmark, Andorra, Latvia, Serbia, Israel, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Slovenia, Finland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Luxembourg, Norway (32 teams)

European qualifying process is not under way yet, so every team has a chance to qualify. It's pretty certain that the 2+1 winning places will go to teams from European Nations Cup Division 1A, which means Georgia, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain and Belgium.

My tip:
Qualifiers: Georgia, Romania
Repechage: Poland ;) ok, seriously Portugal


Oceania
Already qualified: New Zealand, Australia, Samoa, Tonga
Qualifier places: 1
Repechage places: 0

Still in hunt: Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Cook Islands, Niue, Tahiti, Wallis and Futuna, American Samoa (10 teams)

It's simple here in the Pacific - 9 teams play in the Oceania Cup next year, and the winner faces Fiji to get a ticket to England. It's hard to imagine anyone beating the Flying Fijians. The team to try that will probably be Papua New Guinea.

My tip:
Qualifier: Fiji


Repechage
The four teams which earned a repechage places will battle for the last spot in RWC2015. This should be pretty interesting as we have virtually no intercontinental games between Tier 3 coutries.

My tip, assuming my previous tips (Kenya, Chile, Philippines, Portugal): Portugal


So, currently there are no less than 74 teams fighting for just 8 spots in RWC2015. The fiercest battle should be seen in Africa and Europe. If my predictions come true, we'll see Madagascar, Canada, USA, Japan, Georgia, Romania, Portugal and Fiji in England. But before that, I hope we'll see a lot of exciting matches, like the one between Madagascar-Namibia a few days ago!


* In fact there's African CAR Division 1C playing in two weeks time, so I have to admit that the real reason for me doing this recap is that nothing went the way I wanted it to in the final round of Super Rugby! Just hope that the ***le goes to Chiefs or Crusaders!
 
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