Rugby World Cup 2019

2019 Rugby World Cup Qualifying Countries
The 2019 Rugby World Cup is set to take place in Japan, marking the first time that an Asian nation has ever hosted the event. It also marks the second consecutive time that the event has been held in that hemisphere. It is interesting to note the distribution of nations that qualified for the event based on geography and their history with the sport.

The Bid Those nations that were interested in hosting either the 2015 or 2019 Rugby World Cups were meant to submit their nominations to the World Cup committee in 2008. A record ten teams submitted their nominations, including some shockers. One of these shockers was Jamaica, a team that had never before participated in the Rugby World Cup.

The small island nation quickly withdrew their nomination. Others were soon to follow, including Russia, which had initially asked to host either one of the two events. In the end, only three nations were left for the committee’s consideration, and each were located on different continents: Italy, Japan, and South Africa. Of the three, Japan was the ultimate winner, which marked a landmark in the history of both the Rugby World Cup and the sport of rugby.

Qualifying Nations As of today, there are only twelve nations that are definitively slotted in to compete in the event. These teams include Japan, South Africa, Argentina, England, France, Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, Wales, Australia, and New Zealand. As can be seen form the list above, the majority of these teams are from Western nations and Oceanic nations that follow Western culture (such as Australia and New Zealand). These teams represent all of the teams that met the requirements for automatic qualification. Because of this, there are still several more teams that are set to play (though they have yet to be announced). It is worth noting, however, that Japan is the only Asian nation that will play in the 2019 Rugby World Cup Qualifying Countries. The overwhelming European dominance in the event shows that rugby still does not enjoy the same international support that other sports enjoy.

Despite this, it is beginning to make inroads in Africa and Asia, a fact that should delight all rugby enthusiasts. There are quite a number of serial champions in the list of qualifiers, including Australia and New Zealand, which have combined to win five of the eight championships.

Conclusion On the whole, the 2019 Rugby World Cup will pit nations against the world against each other in the sport of rugby. While a large majority of these teams are European or Oceanic, there exists still a smattering of teams from other regions of the world. Whatever the results, the event shall go down in history as the first Rugby World Cup to be hosted by an Asian nation. It also marks the first time that the sport of rugby has been played on such a big scale in the nation of Japan. For these reasons, the event shows the increasing popularity of the sport and proves to be a showdown for the ages.