Rugby Africa Gold Cup trophy unveiled – Action to kick-off June in Windhoek
The 2018 Rugby Africa Gold Cup, which doubles as a Rugby World Cup 2019 qualification tournament, this week launched a new trophy and brand at the AIPS congress in Brussels.
The Rugby Africa Gold Cup will be played across seven match days between 16 June and 18 August and features Africa’s top teams that have not already qualified for the Rugby World Cup 2019 – Namibia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Morocco and Tunisia.
The action will get under way on 16 June at Hage Geingob Stadium in Windhoek and the tournament will reach its exciting conclusion when the final is played on 18 August.
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.
Gold plated and standing at a height of 47 centimetres and weighing 3.3 kilograms, the perpetual trophy features a smooth Georgian bodied design, complete with delicately patterned handles, an impressive stepped lid that is supplied complete with a circular solid African Mahogany base.
Meawnhile, 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 programme, over 377,800 participants, supported by 4,400 coaches, were introduced to rugby across Africa in 2017 as the sport continues to go from strength to strength.
The new Rugby Africa Gold Cup perpetual trophy has been created to embody rugby’s values of Integrity, Respect, Solidarity, Passion and Discipline which inspire 9.1 million people to play the game worldwide.
Caption: Chairman of World Rugby’s African association and Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard; Founder & CEO of APO group unveiling the new Rugby Africa Gold Cup.(Photograph contributed).
