A dream historic first with three African teams at the expanded 2027 Men’s Rugby World in Cup in Australia was dashed after Namibia’s Welwitschias were knocked out following a loss to Belgium and Samoa in a Repechage tournament in Dubai.

Namibia, who had easily qualified for every Rugby World Cup since 1999 landed the tougher qualification route following a narrow 28-30 loss to Zimbabwe in the Rugby Africa Cup in Kampala, Uganda. Although they easily dispatched United Arab Emirates 86-29 in an Africa/Asia play-off in Kampala one week after the Africa Cup, their quest for the remaining one slot became much tougher.

Must Win

They had to win all their matches in Dubai against Belgium, Brazil and Samoa. The seven-time Rugby World Cup qualifiers lost 15-22 to Belgium in the first match and fell 8-26 to Samoa to miss the one ticket. Namibia bounced back to beat Brazil 30-27 in the last match while Belgium and Brazil drew 13-13 paving way for Samoa to qualify.

Namibia captain Louis van der Westhuizen said at the end of their qualification journey that the rebuilding stage for the Welwitschias had started with an aim of qualifying for the next Rugby World Cup. The same sentiments were shared by the coach, Pieter Rossouw who noted that his charges finished on a high with a win against Brazil.

Zimbabwe Opponents

Zimbabwe, Africa’s representatives besides South Africa, the World Champions will know who their opponents will be when the draw is made on December 3, 2025 in Sydney. The championship will be held in seven cities namely Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth, Sydney and Townsville.

Since the 2027 Rugby World Cup has been expanded from 20 to 24 teams, the new format shall see an introduction of a round of 16. There will be six pools of four teams each. The top two teams from each pool progress to the round of 16 with the four best third-placed teams also progressing.

Top Three Teams

Twelve teams that finished in the top three of their pools at the 2023 Rugby World Cup automatically qualified alongside hosts Australia who will be drawn in Pool A. Teams who automatically qualified are France, New Zealand, Italy, Ireland, South Africa, Scotland, Wales, Fiji, Australia, England, Argentina, and Japan. 

The remaining 12 teams qualified various tournaments that included Rugby Europe championship, Rugby Africa, Americas, and from the Pacific and Asia Regions. They are Georgia, Spain, Romania, Portugal, Tonga, Canada, United States, Uruguay, Chile, Zimbabwe, Hong Kong China and Samoa who grabbed the remaining spot at a Repechage tournament in Dubai. 

According to the organizers, the teams will be seeded from 1-24 based on their world ranking which puts South Africa, New Zealand, Ireland, France, England and Argentina as the top seeds.