Upcoming WC Qualifiers

1) African Nations WC qualifier -
Kenya, Madagascar, Namibia, Zimbabwe -
Namibia won the group and go to the WC. Zimbabwe play Russia in a WC Qualifier

2) Uruguay v Hong Kong August 2nd....World Cup Qualifier.
Should be an easy win for Uruguay

The African games should be exciting. I'm guessing that most people would love to see Madagascar qualify, though Kenya would be good too. It'd be nice to see Zimbabwe return to the world cup, then there's the dependable Namibians too.

Yeah been talking to a few Africans...general opinion is that Namibia should make it again....however their time as the second best team in Africa is rapidly coming to an end as teams like Madagascar etc are closing the gap very quickly...as are others like Kenya that have a much bigger population....

Well Namibia are at the World Cup again...but i honestly think this may be their last one...as teams like Zimbabwe, Kenya, Morrocco etc will overtake them.

Zimbabwe v Russia for another World Cup spot. August the 2nd.
Think Russia will have to much for them.

Uruguay v Hong Kong for another World Cup Spot. August the 2nd
Think Uruguay will have WAY too much for Hong Kong

Personally, I don't believe Zimbabwe should be anywhere near an international competiton in rugby, or any sport for that matter. Their leaders have an abysmal human rights record, which was certainly good enough to get SA excluded during the dark days of Apartheid.

Come to think of it, Kenya's human rights record is pretty shabby too.

Well you have a point Jimpy that agree with...but its a difficult one.

The rugby team have been in the doldrums for years since it all kicked off over there...and look like they are finally picking the rugby up again...so is it fair to punish the players...when they have nothing to do with the regime.

Besides i cant see them beating Russia for that WC spot anyway.

Its interesting to see what team Zimbabwe could put out if they had kept all their players through the years....

South Africa - Ray Mordt, Gary Teichmann, Brian Mujati, Adrian Garvey, Tendai Mtawarira, Bobby Skinstad, Tonderai Chavanga and Kennedy Tsimba
Australia - David Pocock
Ireland - David Curtis
Scotland - Scott Gray, David Denton and Paul Johnstone
USA - Takudzwa Ngwenya,

Their Current pack could be something like:

1 Mwatawera
2 Pieter Dixon
3 Mujati
4 Armand
5 Mike Williams
6 Ewers
7 Pocock
8 Denton

Thats a nice back row!

GeordieFalcon wrote:Well you have a point Jimpy that agree with...but its a difficult one.

The rugby team have been in the doldrums for years since it all kicked off over there...and look like they are finally picking the rugby up again...so is it fair to punish the players...when they have nothing to do with the regime.

Besides i cant see them beating Russia for that WC spot anyway.

Its interesting to see what team Zimbabwe could put out if they had kept all their players through the years....

South Africa - Ray Mordt, Gary Teichmann, Brian Mujati, Adrian Garvey, Tendai Mtawarira, Bobby Skinstad, Tonderai Chavanga and Kennedy Tsimba
Australia - David Pocock
Ireland - David Curtis
Scotland - Scott Gray, David Denton and Paul Johnstone
USA - Takudzwa Ngwenya,

Their Current pack could be something like:

1 Mwatawera
2 Pieter Dixon
3 Mujati
4 Armand
5 Mike Williams
6 Ewers
7 Pocock
8 Denton

Thats a nice back row!

Same was true in SA, yet SA were excluded from many international sports. But I agree, its a difficult thing to address.

Well yes your right SA players suffered. So maybe they should be excluded.

GeordieFalcon wrote:Well you have a point Jimpy that agree with...but its a difficult one.

The rugby team have been in the doldrums for years since it all kicked off over there...and look like they are finally picking the rugby up again...so is it fair to punish the players...when they have nothing to do with the regime.

Besides i cant see them beating Russia for that WC spot anyway.

Its interesting to see what team Zimbabwe could put out if they had kept all their players through the years....

South Africa - Ray Mordt, Gary Teichmann, Brian Mujati, Adrian Garvey, Tendai Mtawarira, Bobby Skinstad, Tonderai Chavanga and Kennedy Tsimba
Australia - David Pocock
Ireland - David Curtis
Scotland - Scott Gray, David Denton and Paul Johnstone
USA - Takudzwa Ngwenya,

Their Current pack could be something like:

1 Mwatawera
2 Pieter Dixon
3 Mujati
4 Armand
5 Mike Williams
6 Ewers
7 Pocock
8 Denton

Thats a nice back row!

Add in Kyle Godwin from the Force at 12, who isn't capped so I think can still represent Zimbabwe!

So Zimbabwe can certainly produce the players if they're allowed. I was tallking to a guy from there in my gym the other day and he says rugby has got first class training in the schools...but its after that they lose players due to money etc. And the current political regime doesnt help of course.

If they can manage to keep hold of players they could be a real force in the game.

I think Namibia to a lesser extent suffer the same fate...with both countries losing players most noteably to the big neighbour in the green shirt.

Russia - Zimbabwe is on the IRB website, currently 8-0 after 20 minutes: http://www.irb.com/live/video.html

Russia 23-15 Zimbabwe
Uruguay 28-3 Hong Kong

Russia and Uruguay will play each other home and away for the last spot in the tournament.

GeordieFalcon wrote:So Zimbabwe can certainly produce the players if they're allowed. I was tallking to a guy from there in my gym the other day and he says rugby has got first class training in the schools...but its after that they lose players due to money etc. And the current political regime doesnt help of course.

If they can manage to keep hold of players they could be a real force in the game.

I think Namibia to a lesser extent suffer the same fate...with both countries losing players most noteably to the big neighbour in the green shirt.

You could add Thom Evans to that list too, Brad Barritt could have turned out for them too. Sadly the exodus from Zim has been so large that it will hard to see them really competing on the world stage again soon. I would bet that over the coming years a large number of players in Oz will have Zim heritage though.

Of course Barritt is of Rhodesian decent.

Well it woulod appear they are back trying to play again, and if they can continue to produce through their school system then they may appear in a WC again...maybe Japan 2019.

Interesting to see that The Confederation of African Rugby is considering changing the formula of the African Nations Cup next season. Competitions zone (A, B, C) will be removed in favor of a single championship. Bringing together all nations qualified for the competition.

Maybe split into North and South pools with the winners playing off in a final:

North Pool: Tunisia, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda
South Pool: Zimbabwe, Namibia, Madagascar, Botswana, Zambia, Swaziland, SA Amateur, Mauritius

The IRB are helping with funding.

Jimpy wrote:Personally, I don't believe Zimbabwe should be anywhere near an international competiton in rugby, or any sport for that matter. Their leaders have an abysmal human rights record, which was certainly good enough to get SA excluded during the dark days of Apartheid.

Come to think of it, Kenya's human rights record is pretty shabby too.

Take a look at the Zimbabwe rugby team, it's full of both black and white players enjoying rugby. Zimbabwe has a racist black leader who hates white people but all he really has done is force the sale of white owned farms to black people at big discounts and totally screw his country up as a result. A large amount of the white people have left Zimbabwe and moved to South Africa anyway, but I don't see what this has to do with rugby.
If a rugby team has both black and white players functioning happily with no racism involved then Apartheid isn't a word that can be used fairly against them, why punish the players? Zimbabwe have already participated in the 1987 and 1991 world cups why ban them?
The Zimbabwe rugby team should be held up and example of what rugby is all about in terms of bringing people of different skin colors together, just like the South Africa team did in 1995.   

Shifty wrote:

Jimpy wrote:Personally, I don't believe Zimbabwe should be anywhere near an international competiton in rugby, or any sport for that matter. Their leaders have an abysmal human rights record, which was certainly good enough to get SA excluded during the dark days of Apartheid.

Come to think of it, Kenya's human rights record is pretty shabby too.

Take a look at the Zimbabwe rugby team, it's full of both black and white players enjoying rugby.  Zimbabwe has a racist black leader who hates white people but all he really has done is force the sale of white owned farms to black people at big discounts and totally screw his country up as a result.  A large amount of the white people have left Zimbabwe and moved to South Africa anyway, but I don't see what this has to do with rugby.  
If a rugby team has both black and white players functioning happily with no racism involved then Apartheid isn't a word that can be used fairly against them, why punish the players?  Zimbabwe have already participated in the 1987 and 1991 world cups why ban them?
The Zimbabwe rugby team should be held up and example of what rugby is all about in terms of bringing people of different skin colors together, just like the South Africa team did in 1995.   

 
I don't think anyone has actually, however parallels were drawn between SA and Zimbabwe which both had/have regimes that were based upon racism. An entirely legitimate accusation, and arguably worthy of Zimbabwe's exclusion.

Russia - Uruguay   27/28 September
Uruguay - Russia 11/12 October

Uruguay to win.

andyi wrote:Russia - Uruguay   27/28 September
Uruguay - Russia 11/12 October

How does qualifying so late for a competition help these teams develop ... really? It must be panic stations when the team that makes it actually does qualifiy.