March 3rd, 2008
The Confederation of African Rugby top brass are set to meet in Abidjan on March 8 to deliberate on the crucial issues which will affect the running of the game this year and for the next four years.
On the agenda are membership proposals where Rwanda has applied for admission as an Anglophone country following her admission to the East Africa Community. The meeting shall also discuss the format for the 2011 Rugby World Cup 15’s and 2009 7’s qualifiers.
Recently, some pertinent questions were asked about the format which was supposed to have been adopted by CAR. According to the International Rugby Board, the pooling of the teams in the pre-qualifiers is supposed to follow the current IRB rankings.
According to the proposed format by CAR, the first round will feature Cameroon v Nigeria and Botswana and Swaziland on a home and away basis. The winners will then move to the second round where 12 teams will be divided into four pools of three teams each. Winners in each of the four pools will then proceed to a central venue for the third round in which the winner will qualify to represent Africa at the 2011 Rugby World Cup.