2011 Rugby World Cup qualifying

2011 Rugby World Cup qualifying began at the 2007 tournament in France, where twelve teams (the first three in each of the four pools) earned a place in the finals of the tournament, this automatically qualified them for the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.[1]

2011 Rugby World Cup qualifying
Tournament details
Dates2007 – 2010
No. of nations91
← 2007
2015 →

After much speculation, it was confirmed on 30 November 2007 that 20 teams would contest the next edition of the tournament.[2] The qualification system for the remaining eight places was region-based, with Europe and the Americas allocated two qualifying places, Africa, Asia and Oceania one place each, and the last place determined by a playoff.[3]

With 79 teams participating in regional qualifying competitions, and 12 teams qualifying automatically, 91 nations were involved in the process.

Qualified teams

Regional qualifiers

Eight nations qualified from regional competitions: seven qualified directly through their region, and the eighth from a four-nation repechage play-off for the final spot.

Region Automatic qualifiers Teams in qualifying process Qualifying places Qualifying teams World Cup pools Repechage places Repechage teams
Africa 1 14 1  Namibia D 1  Tunisia
Americas 1 18 2  Canada
 United States		 A
C		 1  Uruguay
Asia 0 11 1  Japan A 1  Kazakhstan
Europe 6 31 2  Georgia
 Russia		 B
C		 1  Romania
Oceania 4 5 1  Samoa D 0   none
TOTALS 12 79 7 4 (1 WC Place)

Final place play-off
Main article: 2011 Rugby World Cup – repechage qualification

The twentieth place at the 2011 tournament was determined by a repechage play-off which involved the third-place teams from the American and European qualifying tournaments (Uruguay and Romania). On a home and away basis, Romania prevailed by winning 32–12 in Bucharest, preceded by a 21–21 draw in Montevideo. It competed in Pool B.

Both nations had won the repechage semi-finals. Those were conducted as single matches, with the European and African qualifiers drawn into one semi-final and the Asian and Americas qualifiers drawn into the other. Romania beat Tunisia 56–13 and Uruguay had the upper hand over Kazakhstan winning 44–7. Both matches were hosted by the team with the higher IRB World Ranking when the two teams to play became known.

Sources
  1. "Rankings to determine RWC pools". BBC News. 22 February 2008.
  2. "Twenty teams to compete at Rugby World 2011". Official RWC 2011. 30 November 2007. Archived from the original on 19 October 2011.
  3. "Caribbean kick off for RWC 2011 qualifying". Official RWC 2011. 3 April 2008. Archived from the original on 5 September 2011.
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