The 2019 Rugby World Cup qualification for the Americas region, both NACRA and CONSUR, began in March 2016. Twenty teams will compete for the two direct qualification spots available in the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, and one spot in the Repechage.
Contents
Format
The qualification process for the Americas region will be a four round process, the same process used for the 2015 Americas qualification. Round 1 took place in 2016, where the 2016 Rugby Americas North Championship acted as the qualification tournament, Round 1A. The nine World Rugby members in the NACRA were separated into two zones, a south and north zone. The bottom placed team from the 2015 tournament, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines had to play returning team to the tournament, Jamaica, to earn the right to compete in the main tournament, with the winner of the qualifier match joining the south zone. The winners of each zone will then compete in the Championship final to earn the right to progress to the Round 1 final, to play the winners of Round 1B, which is formed by the 2016 South American Rugby Championship "B". The winner of the Round 1 final, will advance to Round 2.
Round 2 will also take place in 2016, with the 2016 South American Rugby Championship "A" forming Round 2A. The team placed bottom at the end of the Championship will play the winner of Round 1 in a CONSUR A/B relegation playoff, the winner of the playoff advancing to Round 3, the loser, therefore, being eliminated.
Round 3 will take place in 2017, with the top CONSUR division, 2017 South American Rugby Championship "A", forming Round 3A. The winner of that round will advance to Round 4, and will play a home and away playoff series against the loser of Round 3B. Round 3B will be formed by a home and away playoff series between the top two Americas nations, Canada and the United States, where the winner of the playoff series qualifying as Americas 1.
Round 4 will see the winner of Round 3A play against the loser of Round 3B in a home and away playoff series in 2018. The winner of the playoff series will qualify as Americas 2, with the loser advancing to the Repechage as Americas 3 for a second chance to qualify.
Entrants
The 2019 Rugby World Cup qualifying teams that will compete for the 2019 Rugby World Cup – Americas qualification. (World rankings, shown in brackets, are to first Americas qualification match on 5 March 2016)
Notes:
Round 1A: 2016 Rugby Americas North Championship
The qualifying match between Jamaica and St Vincent and the Grenadines was the first qualifying match for the 2019 tournament, three-and-a-half years before the start of the tournament. Jamaica defeated St Vincent and the Grenadines 48–0, eliminating them from qualifying. The match was played in front of a record crowd of 1,000 at Arnos Vale Sports Complex, and was refereed by Nigel Owens who had refereed the 2015 Rugby World Cup Final. The victory boosted Jamaica to a World Rugby ranking of 72, their highest ever.
2016 CONSUR Rugby Championship B
The 2016 South American Rugby Championship "B" was held in October 2016 and hosted by Peru in Lima.