Ivory Coast and Tunisia impress in Africa
The Ivory Coast twice fought from behind to claim a creditable 13-13 draw against Namibia in Abidjan on Sunday, and keep alive their hopes of reaching a second Rugby World Cup finals tournament.
The Ivorians must now travel to Namibia's capital Windhoek on 27 June to play the second leg of their Africa Cup semi final, with the aggregate winner proceeding to the final against either Tunisia or Uganda.
The winner of the continent's showpiece event will qualify directly for the World Cup as Africa 1.
The loser will proceed to the cross-continental repechage for the final place.
On Saturday, Tunisia made themselves firm favourites to reach the final by beating Uganda 41-17 in Kampala. As a result, they take a 24-point buffer into their second semi final leg on home soil on 27 June.
Ivory Coast show fighting spirit
Namibia started brightly against the Ivorians and led 6-0 after 25 minutes with two well-taken penalties by Chrisander Botha. However, it is sign of Ivory Coast's continued development as a rugby-playing nation that they weathered the storm against the World Cup veterans and built enough momentum to draw level by the half with two penalties of their own, kicked by centre Jean-Maurice Oulouma.
After 47 minutes centre Piet van Zyl scored the first try, converted by Botha, as the Namibians looked to be taking a stranglehold on the game, but again the hosts responded in kind.
Number 8 Bakari Meite crossed on 62 minutes and Oulouma converted to pull the scores level again, and give the Namibians plenty to think about ahead of the return leg in Windhoek.
South Africa await the winner
When the pool allocation draw was made for Rugby World Cup 2011, Africa 1 was placed in Pool D and will face the continent's number one side, World Cup holders South Africa as well as Wales, Fiji and Oceania 1.
The four semi finalists reached this stage in the competition by each topping their pools in 2008.
Namibia got the better of Zimbabwe and Senegal, Tunisia beat fancied Kenya 44-15 and also Cameroon, Uganda overcame both Botswana and Madagascar, while the Ivory Coast provided the shock of the qualifying stages by beating Morocco 21-9 in Casablanca to top their group.
Namibia secured Africa's prized qualifying place at the 1999, 2003 and 2007 Rugby World Cup tournaments. Prior to that, Zimbabwe competed at the first two tournaments, in 1987 and 1991, and the Ivory Coast qualified in 1995.
