Dubai, UAE – Samoa clinched teh final qualifying spot for the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia after a tense 13-13 draw with Belgium in the Final Qualification Tournament on Saturday. The result sees Samoa topping the tournament standings with 12 points, narrowly edging out Belgium who finished with 11.
This marks SamoaS tenth appearance in the Rugby World cup, while Belgium’s hopes of reaching the tournament for the first time were dashed despite a strong showing throughout the competition. The four-team tournament, held in Dubai, also featured Namibia and Brazil. Both Samoa and Belgium secured wins against Namibia and Brazil, but a crucial bonus point earned by Samoa proved to be the difference.
Belgium took an early lead at the Sevens Stadium, with two penalty kicks from Matias Remue giving them a 6-3 advantage with 17 minutes remaining.Samoa responded with a 63rd-minute try from Abraham Papali’i, converted by Jacob Umaga, who later added a penalty to put Samoa ahead. Though, Belgium fought back with a try from Jean-Maurice Decubber in the 83rd minute, Remue successfully converting to tie the score. Despite a late push, Belgium couldn’t secure the winning score.
“it wasn’t pretty,” acknowledged Samoa captain Theo McFarland, “but we got the job done to qualify for our 10th World Cup. We spoke all week about giving Belgium respect and credit to them, they stuck in it and gave it to us. It’s a draw,but we’ll take the ticket to the World cup.” He added, “The whole week we spoke about trusting the process and backing each other up.”
Belgium captain Decubber expressed his team’s disappointment. “We’re really sad – I think we deserved it. We worked very hard for it in this game and I feel sad for the team,” he said. “We did a good tournament, we really thought we could get to the World cup.” Decubber vowed, “We will come back harder” to qualify for the 2031 World Cup.
