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]
Structure
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.
Seeding
The sixteen participating teams were seeded as follows: