Oceania

This region was dominated by Australia for a long time, so with their departure for Asia, this is a big chance for another team to have a shot at the World Cup. Oceania is down to a two team race: New Zealand and New Caledonia. New Zealand currently have a one-point lead and a game in hand (at home to Fiji) over New Caledonia. These two teams will meet in a home and home series to decide who gets to playoff against the Asian team for a spot in the World Cup. New Caledonia have to win both matches to make it, assuming that New Zealand beat Fiji and there is no reason to believe that won’t happen. I think that New Caledonia will beat New Zealand at home to set up a tense match in New Zealand in October. I am going to go with the long shot: I see the Caledonians beating the All Whites to advance to the playoff against the Asian team.