Algeria and Burundi became full members of rugby’s world governing body, World Rugby, following approval during a virtual meeting of the World Rugby Council on Wednesday.
“Both the Fédération Algérienne de Rugby and the Fédération Burundaise de Rugby are full members of Rugby Africa and have sustainable women’s rugby and development programmes in place as they continue to grow as rugby nations,” World Rugby said in a statement.
Burundi currently has 2,750 registered players and has been an associate member of World Rugby since 2004 while Algeria has over 80 men’s and 40 women’s teams and became an associate member in 2019, according to World Rugby.
The admission of Algeria and Burundi means World Rugby’s membership rose to 128, including 109 full members and 19 associate members. Africa now has a total of 20 members within World Rugby.
This means both countries will be eligible to qualify for the 2023 Rugby World Cup (RWC 2023) as they are set to compete in the 2021 Rugby Africa Cup (RAC).
The RAC is set to kick off next month with a repechage event, which Burundi will compete in, before the group phase sees four pools of three teams each playing a round-robin tournament at a single venue per pool.
The winner of the repechage will join Rugby Africa Cup Pool D in Tunisia in July together with Tunisia and Zimbabwe. Meanwhile Algeria will play in the Rugby Africa Cup Pool C in Kampala against Ghana and hosts Uganda from July 10-18.
The best two teams from each pool qualify for the 2022 Rugby Africa Cup, which serves as the final round of the RWC 2023 qualifier for Africa. The eventual winner of the Rugby Africa Cup in August 2022 will qualify for RWC 2023 as Africa 1, and enter Pool A alongside hosts France, while the runner-up will enter the final qualification tournament for another chance at qualifying.
World Rugby Chairman Sir Bill Beaumont welcomed both countries saying Africa was a key region with huge potential for the future development of rugby.
“Africa is home to the current men’s Rugby World Cup winners and we will continue to work closely with Rugby Africa to ensure we provide emerging unions such as Algeria and Burundi with continuous support and a solid framework to further accelerate the growth of the sport across the region.”
Albert Havyarimana, president of the Fédération Burundaise de Rugby, said Burundi’s admission was a “reward for many years of hard work
Sofiane Abdelkader Benhassen, president of the Fédération Algérienne de Rugby, was excited that the growth of the game in the country will now be accelerated in addition to Algeria getting an opportunity to qualify for the Olympic Games and the Men’s and Women’s Sevens and Rugby World Cups.
