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
My tip:
Qualifier:
Namibia
Repechage:
Zimbabwe
Although Madagascar did amazingly well this year and have amazing fans, it's worth remembering two things.
1. They won't have that home advantage again in qualifying. They only just sneaked past both Morocco and Namibia with that great home advantage, but how will they do in front of 1,000 fans who aren't jumping about chanting for them?
2. Namibia have always traditionally fielded a slightly weaker team at the early stages of qualification as they just expect to sneak through with it, and then call up their more well known players for the more important stages. They still have Jacques Burger, Tinus du Plessis, Rohan Kitshoff, Danie van Wyk and Conrad Marais who are five of their better players to return to this side, they may come back earlier now that they have been backed into a corner somewhat.
But saying that, they are now just a loss away from elimination, so it is still definitely one of the most open African qualifying campaigns ever.
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
My tip:
Qualifiers:
Canada, USA
Repechage:
Uruguay
Canada and USA are obvious certainties. I would still back Uruguay to take the Repechage spot over Chile, although Chile do have a chance they are underdogs.
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
My tip:
Qualifier:
Japan
Repechage:
Hong Kong
Japan will obviously win this easily. Not too sure about the rest though, the second place in the Asian 5N has often changed, South Korea have it currently, and Hong Kong have had it as well as Kazakhstan who appear to have lost their way this year (apparently some of their best Russian based players don't play for them any more). The Philippines are also improving as you say, so it is hard to predict. Either way though, whoever gets through as repechage has no chance of qualifying so it doesn't matter too much.
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
My tip:
Qualifiers:
Georgia, Romania
Repechage:
Russia
Georgia are certainties. In the IRB Nations Cup, Romania finally looked to show a little bit of promise, after years and years of over reliance on players now reaching their mid thirties and looking like they would be in grave danger of not qualifying for the first time, it's early days but there is now some more encorouging signs from some players who are not in their mid thirties, such as Viorel Lucaci, Dorin Manole, Mihai Macovei, Otar Turashvili and Catalin Fercu and Mihai Adascaletei who returned from life bans from the national team.
I think Russia will qualify, they have been rubbish this year as they have constantly played an experimental weak team and been losing heavily with it to Georgia and Romania, with the excuse of "rebuilding" the squad, but in the important qualifying matches I think they will qualify, their back three is by far the best in the division and much better than a few Tier 1 nations as well.
The other team who has a chance of taking Russia's spot is Francia (aka Spain), they have improved a lot this year thanks to finding as many French players as possible with some Spanish connection.
I don't think Portugal have much chance, although they beat Spain this year, Spain were more impressive in the other matches of the tournament.
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
My tip:
Qualifier:
Fiji
Easy.
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 title goes to Chiefs or Crusaders!
From the Repechage teams I predicted, the final would be between Russia and Uruguay. It would be very close, but I predict Uruguay to nick it slightly as Russia's scrum is awful.
