Qualifying began with the top eight African sides (excluding South Africa) playing in a straight knock-out format to determine seedings for the final round of the qualification process, with the bottom placed side of round 1, eliminated from qualification.
Round two, will see the eight development African nations competing in a round-robin tournament over two groups, with the winners of each group facing each other in round 2 final. The winner of the final will progress to the third round of the qualification process, whilst the other seven nations will be eliminated.
Round three, will see the final eight sides face each other in a straight knock-out format based on their seedings in 2024. The winner of this round will qualify for the Rugby World Cup, whilst the runner-up will face Asia 2 from the Asian qualification process in a play-off series to determine who advances to the Final Qualification Tournament.
Eight teams will compete during for the Africa qualifiers for the 2027 Rugby World Cup, with South Africa the only team thus far qualified from the Region. (Rankings as of first qualification match in this region)
Source: [citation needed] Rules for classification: Tiebreakers for teams tied on points: 1) Number of matches won; 2) Difference between points for and against; 3) Total number of points for; 4) Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams; 5) Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled.
Source: [citation needed] Rules for classification: Tiebreakers for teams tied on points: 1) Number of matches won; 2) Difference between points for and against; 3) Total number of points for; 4) Aggregate number of points scored in matches between tied teams; 5) Number of matches won excluding the first match, then the second and so on until the tie is settled.
Round 2 will commence in the July 2025, with a round-robin tournament determining the winner and qualifying for the Rugby World Cup as Africa 1. The runner-up (Africa 2) will progress to an Africa / Asia play-off match against Asia 2 to decide who plays in the Final Qualification Tournament.
Like the first round, Kampala, Uganda will host the tournament.[4]
The following teams have qualified for the final stage of African qualification with one space remaining:
Algeria
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Ghana
Ivory Coast
Kenya
Morocco
Madagascar
Namibia
Nigeria
Senegal
South Africa
Tunisia
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe