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The Rugby Africa Repechage Final: Tantalising North African Derby as Morocco and Tunisia Clash to Join Africa’s Rugby Elite

The Rugby Africa Repechage Final, qualifier for the 2025 Rugby Africa Cup, will take place this Sunday, February 9 2025 at 16:00 (GMT+1). Morocco will take on Tunisia at the Stade Père Jégo, Casablanca, Morocco.

CASABLANCA, Morocco – It’s a brand new year, and a very exciting one for rugby across Africa.
 
Morocco and Tunisia will set the tone on Sunday at the Stade Père Jégo in Casablanca when the two North African nations clash for the last available spot among eight of the best teams on the African continent, competing in July’s all-important 2025 Rugby Africa Cup in Kampala, Uganda.
 
This winner of this Sunday’s Repechage Final in Morocco will join Africa’s rugby elite in Kampala, replacing relegated Burkina Faso, who fell by the wayside after finishing bottom of the eight-team competition during a spectacularly hosted event in the East African country last year.
 
The other seven confirmed teams from 2024 are Namibia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda and Senegal.
 
Morocco enters the Repechage final after romping to victory at home in a play-off tournament featuring Madagascar, Botswana and Cameroon. Tunisia, on the other hand, hosted the other play-off event and secured qualification ahead of Zambia, Ghana and Nigeria.
 
Now, both teams must move a gear up – and very little separates the two North African sides in terms of depth and quality. Morocco may start as favourites due to home advantage and a superior ranking. Currently the Atlas Lions are placed 39th in World Rugby rankings, six places above Tunisia. 
 
Tunisia’s Eagles of Carthage are known to often threaten even some of the best rugby-playing nations on the continent. 
 
Let’s just say this is a massive game, a North African derby with everything at stake. Both nations are hungry for a seat at the top table of African rugby, where a place at the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia will be up for grabs.
 
The 2025 Rugby Africa Cup champions will qualify directly for the next World Cup while the runners-up go through to a global Repechage, keeping their hopes of reaching Australia alive.
 
Who will qualify directly this time around? Will serial Africa Cup winners Namibia dominate again and return to yet another World Cup? Can reigning champions Zimbabwe replicate their unbeaten five-test match run from 2024 to qualify for their first World Cup since 1991? Or will it be a new name, a totally different nation, just as Côte d’Ivoire  did 30 years ago when they surprised everyone to qualify for the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa?
 
This is where countries like Morocco and Tunisia will feel they can be that surprise package, the dark horses capable of performing such heroics to book that ticket to Australia. But of course only one of them can be in Kampala this July to be in with a chance to stage that upset, making Sunday’s Repechage final a real blockbuster, a match not to miss.

Written By Enock Muchinjo