Boitumelo Khutsafalo
19 March 2008
The national men's rugby team, the Vultures, have been drawn to play against Swaziland in the African pre-qualifiers of the 2011 World Cup.
The date for the clash between the two teams is yet to be decided. The other pre-qualifier involves Cameroon and Nigeria. The pre-qualifiers are played between the two lowest-ranked teams in the north and the south of the continent. The winners make up the final 12 teams and the losers will join the Castel Beer competition in 2009. The 12 countries will be divided into four pools with three teams each pool for the qualifiers. The pools are determined by the latest International Rugby Board (IRB) rankings. Botswana is currently ranked 11th in Africa. If the Vultures beat Swaziland in the pre-qualifiers, they will find themselves in Pool D with Uganda and Madagascar.
Botswana Rugby Union (BRU) secretary, Oupa Pandor said that he does not see Swaziland preventing the Vultures from reaching the qualifiers. "We have always played better than them though I do not know how they are preparing at the moment. To be honest, our preparations are focused more on the qualifiers than Swaziland," he said. The Vultures have been in the World Cup qualifiers before and Pandor said that if they continue with the momentum they had when they won the Castel Cup last year, they stand a chance of going far.
In the qualifiers proper, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Senegal are in Pool A while Morocco, Cote d'Ivoire and Zambia are in Pool B. Pool C has Tunisia, Kenya and the winner of the Cameroon-Nigeria pre-qualifier. The winners of each of the pools will play in the semi-finals and the finals of the qualifiers next year. South Africa has been excluded from the qualifiers, as they are the reigning world rugby champions.
Meanwhile, Botswana women have been invited to take part in the rugby World Cup Sevens 2009 qualifying tournament for the first time. The tournament will take place in Kampala, Uganda in July this year. Other countries invited include South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Cote d'Ivoire, Tunisia, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Zambia. Two teams will qualify from this tournament to participate in the rugby World Cup Sevens 2009 in Dubai in March next year. "We are getting all requirements in place for them to participate," Pandor said.
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