With 12 teams having secured their place at the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, the remaining eight places will be determined by a process of regional and cross‑regional qualifiers which will begin this year.
In addition to the two automatically qualified teams (Australia and New Zealand), Oceania have been allocated a further two direct berths in the tournament.
A third and fourth team from Oceania could join the tournament through inter‑confederation play‑offs and the repechage.
The revamped Pacific Nations Cup will now only include Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.
The teams will play on a home and away basis in a round robin format across two years in the June international windows.
The top two teams across the 2016 and 2017 tournaments will gain qualification for Rugby World Cup 2019 as Oceania 1 and Oceania 2. This means that Fiji should try to make the top two in the PNC this year and next year to qualify for the World Cup before the repecharge.
The bottom placed team of the 2016–2017 PNC will play a home and away play‑off against the second ranked team from the 2018 Rugby Europe Championship (excluding Georgia).
The winner on aggregate qualifying for Rugby World Cup 2019 as the Europe/Oceania play‑off qualifier, whereas the loser will head to the world repechage.
Fiji will meet Tonga at 3pm Saturday in the PNC opener and the first qualifier clash at the ANZ Stadium and you can catch the live commentary on our sister station Viti FM.
Source: World Rugby
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