For the

2019 Rugby World Cup The 2019 Rugby World Cup was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening match ...

, there were several play-off matches during the qualification process in order to determine which nations would compete in the

Repechage Repechage (; french: repêchage, "fishing out, rescuing") is a practice in series competitions that allows participants who failed to meet qualifying standards by a small margin to continue to the next round. A well known example is the wild car ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, who failed to be one of the three teams to advance from the Americas qualification process, despite being the third highest ranked team in the Americas, emerged from the repechage process in November 2018 to become the final team to qualify for the World Cup.

Format

Europe/Oceania

The qualification play-off was a home and away series between Europe 2 and Oceania 3. Europe 2, Germany, was the winner of Round 6 of the European qualification process, while Oceania 3, Samoa, was the third best team of Round 1 of the Oceania qualification process. The winner of this home and away play-off on aggregate qualified to the World Cup as the play-off winner. The loser gained another chance via the World Repechage.

Repechage

Asia/Oceania

Prior to the repechage final, Asia 1 and Oceania 4 played-off in a home and away series for the final place. Asia 1 was the winner of Round 3 of the Asian qualification process, while Oceania 4 is Cook Islands. The Cook Islands advanced to the next stage of qualifying for the 2019 Rugby World Cup after Tahiti, the winner of Round 2 of the Oceania qualification process, were found to have breached player eligibility regulations in their Oceania Cup clash the previous year. The winner of this home and away play-off on aggregate, qualified for a place in the World Repechage, while the loser missed out on World Cup qualification.

Final tournament

The 2019 Rugby World Cup repechage tournament was hosted by a neutral venue: the

Pierre-Delort Stadium The Stade Pierre-Delort is a multi-purpose stadium located in Marseille, France. It is located between the Stade Vélodrome and the Huveaune. The stadium hosts rugby matches, athletics competitions, and is the home ground of American football ...

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

, France. In previous years, the repechage, a last-chance opportunity to qualify for the Rugby World Cup, has followed a knock-out format in line with the rest of the qualification process. The 2019 edition, however, was a round-robin tournament between four teams held during the November test window. Africa and the Americas were guaranteed a repechage place, with the runner-up of the African qualification round 3 (Africa 2) and the losing side of the Americas Repechage play-off gaining positions. The final two places were decided through the above cross-regional play-offs, with the loser of the Europe/Oceania play-off (Europe 2 or Oceania 3) getting another shot at qualification in the repechage, and the winner of the Asia/Oceania play-off for repechage, advancing to the repechage, with no direct place for an Asian team or the lower ranked teams in Oceania. The winner of the World Repechage qualified for the World Cup as the play-off winner (or Repechage 2).

Teams

Six teams progressed to the regional and Repechage play-offs for the final two non-regional seeds in the World Cup; teams world rankings are as per date progressing to the play-off phase and bold nations denotes teams had previously played in a Rugby World Cup.

Europe/Oceania qualifying play-off

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

played

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in a Europe/Oceania play-off for direct qualification to the World Cup. Samoa qualified, winning 108–43 on aggregate, while Germany progressed to the Repechage as runners-up. ----

Repechage

On 12 July 2018, World Rugby announced that the repechage tournament would be hosted at the neutral venue of the

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

.France to host decisive repechage tournament for Rugby World Cup 2019
/ref>

Asia/Oceania play-off

The winner of this home and away play-off, Hong Kong, earned the right to compete in the repechage after winning the series 77–3 on aggregate. ----

Repechage final tournament

Teams and table

Final standings (continental qualifying path of each team and world ranking in brackets):

Fixtures

=Round 1

= ----

=Round 2

= ----

=Round 3

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2019 Rugby World Cup - play-off qualifications Rugby World Cup repechage qualifiers 2019 Rugby World Cup qualification 2018 rugby union tournaments for national teams