World Rugby Press Release: Rugby Africa Gold Cup kicks off African Rugby World Cup qualification The 2018 Rugby Africa Gold Cup, which doubles as a Rugby World Cup 2019 qualification tournament, begins on Saturday as the top six teams in Africa, aside from South Africa DUBLIN, Ireland, June 16, 2018/APO Group/ -- The 2018 Rugby Africa Gold Cup, which doubles as a Rugby World Cup 2019 qualification tournament, begins on Saturday as the top six teams in Africa, aside from South Africa, battle it out for a place at the Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan. The Rugby Africa Gold Cup will be played in a round-robin format across seven match days between 16 June and 18 August 2018. It features Africa’s top six nations that have not already qualified for the Rugby World Cup 2019 with Namibia the highest ranked team at 24 in the current World Rugby rankings, followed by Kenya (28), Uganda (37), Morocco (38), Tunisia (42), and Zimbabwe (44). The competition will get under way on 16 June as Zimbabwe host Morocco at Harare Sports Club, while Namibia face Uganda at Hage Geingob Stadium in Windhoek. The tournament will reach its exciting conclusion when the final round of matches is played on 18 August. VIEW RUGBY AFRICA GOLD CUP FIXTURES HERE: https://goo.gl/RrQt5Z The winner of the competition will qualify for Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan as Africa 1, joining reigning champions New Zealand, South Africa, Italy and the repechage winner in Pool B. The Rugby Africa Gold Cup runner-up will go straight to the four-team repechage tournament in November 2018. The winners will also be the first recipients of the newly created perpetual trophy, which was unveiled at the AIPS congress in Brussels in May and is designed to embody rugby’s values of Integrity, Respect, Solidarity, Passion and Discipline. World Rugby Chairman Bill Beaumont said: "We are looking forward to witnessing a very high quality and extremely competitive 2018 Rugby Africa Gold Cup as the six nations involved compete for the right to qualify for what is shaping up to be a fantastic Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan. "There has never been a more exciting time for rugby in Africa with ten African nations currently placed in the top-50 of the world rankings and more women and men, girls and boys, playing the sport than ever before. The players are inspirational role models for the next generations of young Africans who are discovering the sport and I wish the best of luck to all the competing teams." Rugby is the fastest growing sport in Africa and has seen record participation growth and fan engagement over the last five years. Since 2002 the number of African nations playing rugby has risen from six to 38, reflecting the excellent development work that has been undertaken across the region and the appetite for a sport that continues to reach, engage and inspire young people.  As part of the global Get Into Rugby development programme, 401,017 participants, supported by 4,400 coaches, were introduced to rugby across Africa in 2017, up five per cent on 2016, as the sport continues to go from strength to strength. Pleasingly, 45 per cent of all Get Into Rugby participants in the Rugby Africa region were female and the southern and eastern regions of the continent, in particular, experienced massive growth among pre-teenage girls and boys with Kenya and South Africa among the top 10 nations globally. Fans can follow the Rugby Africa Gold Cup action by checking World Rugby’s ‘where to watch’ guide here: https://goo.gl/8XuaQr Distributed by APO Group on behalf of World Rugby.For further media enquiries regarding the Rugby Africa Gold Cup contact: rugby@apo-opa.org Editors' notes: Results, rights-free broadcast quality B-Roll footage, pre-recorded interviews, photos and sound bites will also be available for media to download after each of the 15 games to be played. Click here to register: https://goo.gl/3SfHhf Available for interviews are the presidents, coaches and captains of each national team of Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Morocco, Zimbabwe and Tunisia, the President of World Rugby’ African association, Rugby Africa, Abdelaziz BOUGJA, and the Founder and CEO of APO Group, the main Official Sponsor of Rugby Africa, Nicolas POMPIGNE-MOGNARD. Download the multimedia toolkit here: https://goo.gl/NCtX8S Download the fixtures here: https://goo.gl/TkEiKL Key figures about rugby in Africa here: https://goo.gl/sSkk2x About Rugby World Cup: Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan is the ninth edition of rugby's showcase global event and the first in Asia. The world's top 20 national teams will play in 48 matches hosted across 12 match cities for the right to lift the iconic Webb Ellis Cup and be crowned world champions. Rugby World Cup is the sport's financial engine, generating approximately 90 per cent of World Rugby's revenues for reinvestment in the global game over the four-year cycle. The record-breaking success of England 2015 is enabling World Rugby to invest £245.8 million in the sport by 2020, eclipsing the previous 2013-16 £201 million investment injection by 22 per cent. All the latest news can be found at www.RugbyWorldCup.com and via @rugbyworldcup across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. About Rugby Africa: Founded in 1986, Rugby Africa (www.RugbyAfrique.com), formerly known as the Confederation of African Rugby or CAR, is one of the six regional associations of World Rugby (www.WorldRugby.org), the international body that manages rugby 15 and rugby sevens. Rugby Africa brings together African nations playing rugby 15s, rugby 7s for both men and women. Rugby Africa organizes the Rugby Africa Gold Cup, qualifying competition for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, and Africa Men’s and Women’s 7s, qualifying competitions for the 2020 Olympic Games as well as a range of other tournaments involving 20 countries in 15s rugby and more than 30 in Sevens. Rugby Africa has 38 members, including 22 members or associate members of World Rugby, 10 members or associate members of Rugby Africa and 16 new countries working with Rugby Africa. For further media enquiries regarding the Rugby Africa Gold Cup contact: rugby@apo-opa.org Provided by APO Group on behalf of Rugby Africa.