Russia and Uruguay Close in on RWC 2015 Qualification
- Siberia and Montevideo will be the venues for the two-leg repechage final
- Australia, England, Wales and Fiji in Pool A await the winner
With just two teams remaining in contention for the final qualification place, the two-leg Rugby World Cup 2015 repechage play-off takes place on Saturday, September 27 in Russia with the return being on Saturday, October 11, the IRB has announced.
Uruguay will travel to the Siberian town of Krasnoyarsk to take on the Russians before welcoming them to Montevideo where they had previously seen off the challenge of Hong Kong in the repechage semi-final.
The match in Krasnoyarsk, where Zimbabwe were narrowly beaten in the semi-final, will be refereed by George Clancy of Ireland while France’s Romain Poite will take charge of the second leg at Charrúa Stadium in the Uruguayan capital.
A place in Pool A of Rugby World Cup 2015 is the prize for the team with the more points on aggregate. Waiting for them in a very tough pool will be hosts and 2003 champions England, two-time former champions Australia, two-time semi-finalists Wales and 2007 quarter-finalists Fiji.
Rugby World Cup Limited Chairman Bernard Lapasset said: “With just over a year to go, we are almost at the end of the qualification process for Rugby World Cup 2015 and, for the two teams left standing, the dream of playing at our pinnacle tournament lives on. Only one team will qualify and I am looking forward to two very intense and compelling matches in Siberia and Montevideo.
“By its conclusion, some 3,000 players from 83 teams across six continents will have taken part in a record-breaking Rugby World Cup 2015 qualification process featuring 203 matches. As such, there is a clear pathway for all IRB Member Unions towards the Game’s most important tournament.”
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EDITORS NOTES
About Rugby World Cup: Rugby World Cup is the financial engine behind unprecedented investment and growth in Rugby worldwide. The net Rugby World Cup surplus from the commercial success of France 2007 and New Zealand 2011 has enabled the International Rugby Board to invest more than £150 million in the Game between 2009 and 2012 and commit an anticipated injection of more than £180 million between 2013 and 2016 to underwrite a large range of major funding initiatives including annual national Union grants and strategic investments focusing on growing participation and increasing competition across all 120 national Member Unions affiliated to the IRB.
About England 2015: Rugby World Cup 2015, hosted in England between September 18 and October 31, will be a celebration of Rugby and its unique character-building values, exciting and inspiring the nation and the world to play and support the Game. England Rugby 2015 are the organising committee for Rugby World Cup 2015 and will deliver the six-week tournament, hosted in 10 English cities and in Cardiff, Wales. Thirteen match venues will play host to the 48 games that will celebrate and engage more than two million spectators, including more than 400,000 international travelling fans.
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