The final qualification tournament for the 2027 Rugby World Cup will take place in Dubai from Saturday, November 8, to November 18.
The winning team in the round-robin, four-team competition will take the last place on offer for the expanded finals in Australia in two years’ time.
Qualification
For the first time, the World Cup will involve 24 teams, an increase of four from recent editions.
The first 12 teams gained automatic qualification by finishing in the top three of their groups at the previous World Cup, in France in 2023.
Four teams then qualified from Europe, along with one each from Africa and Asia. Three more came from the Pacific, one from South America, and one via a South America-Pacific play-off.
That leaves one last slot to fill from this repechage tournament in Dubai.
Teams
Brazil – finished third in the South American Rugby Championship
Samoa – Loser of a South America-Pacific play-off against Chile last month
Belgium – fifth place in the Rugby Europe Men’s Championship
Namibia – winner of Africa-Asia play-off against the UAE
Controversy
The South American entrants into the competition were initially scheduled to be Paraguay.
But it was announced last week they would be replaced by Brazil, after Paraguay withdrew.
World Rugby praised Paraguay for making a voluntary admission of fault when they discovered they had fielded an ineligible player in the play-off between them and Brazil.
They said an administration oversight led to the fielding of an ineligible player for both qualifiers against the Brazilians.
“It’s a decision we must make as men of principle, in keeping with rugby’s core value of integrity,” Gustavo Borgognon, the president of Paraguay’s union, was quoted as saying.
UAE involvement
Dubai will host the tournament, and at one point they had hopes the national team might be there to play, too.
The UAE finished second behind Hong Kong in the Asia Rugby Championship this summer.
That meant Hong Kong qualified for the World Cup for the first time, and will be the second Asian side involved, after Japan.
The national team then had a one-off fixture against the second best side from African qualifying, which was Namibia, but they were soundly beaten.
Fixtures
Saturday, November 8
Samoa v Brazil (5pm)
Belgium v Namibia (7.30pm)
Thursday, November 13
Belgium v Brazil (5pm)
Samoa v Namibia (7.30pm)
Tuesday, November 18
Namibia v Brazil (5pm)
Samoa v Belgium (7.30pm)
Admission
Entry will be free for all the matches.
