The 2019-20 Rugby Africa Cup is the first season of a restructuring of international rugby union competition by Rugby Africa after a loss of broadcast sponsorship caused the cancellation of the 2019 Rugby Africa Gold Cup, itself only the third edition of a previous restructuring of the continent's tournament.
The new Rugby Africa Cup replaces the multi-tiered Gold, Silver, and Bronze Cups with a seeded group stage followed by a knockout round.[1] This results in fewer matches being played, but also greatly reduced costs and travel times from the round-robin Gold Cup.
The group stage of the tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2]
The top sixteen nations in African rugby enter the competition, with the bottom eight entering in the elimination stage.[3] [4] Each team plays a single match and the four winners move onto the group stage, with four groups of three. The four group winners then enter the semi-finals.
The sixteen participating teams were seeded as follows:
(World Rankings taken from November 13, 2019)[5]
| width=50 | Seed | width=140 | Team | width=110 | 2018 position | width=50 | WR Ranking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1st Gold Cup | 22 | |||||
| 2 | 2nd Gold Cup | 32 | |||||
| 3 | 3rd Gold Cup | 41 | |||||
| 4 | 4th Gold Cup | 39 | |||||
| 5 | 5th Gold Cup | 34 | |||||
| 6 | 1st Silver Cup | n/a | |||||
| 7 | 6th Gold Cup | 48 | |||||
| 8 | 2nd Silver Cup | 67 | |||||
| 9 | 3rd Silver Cup | 51 | |||||
| 10 | 4th Silver Cup | 43 | |||||
| 11 | 5th Silver Cup | 54 | |||||
| 12 | 1st Bronze Cup | 92 | |||||
| 13 | 6th Silver Cup | 71 | |||||
| 14 | 2nd Bronze Cup | 93 | |||||
| 15 | 3rd Bronze Cup | 95 | |||||
| 16 | n/a | 70 |
The elimination stage matches will be played from November to December 2019
Elimination 1
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Elimination 2
Elimination 3
Elimination 4
The group stage will be held from June-July 2020[6]
2019-2020 Rugby Africa Gold Cup