Fiji top Oceania Rugby World Cup qualifiers

Nadi, Fiji - Fiji thrashed Tonga 47-20 today to top the Oceania qualifying group for next year's rugby World Cup in Australia.

Fiji's 27-point winning margin lifted them above Samoa on points difference and earned them a favourable draw at the World Cup.

As Oceania group winners, Fiji will join France, Scotland and two other qualifiers in pool B at the World Cup.

Samoa, as runners-up, go into the more difficult pool C with South Africa, England and two other qualifiers.

With only the top two teams from the Oceania tournament earning automatic places in the World Cup, Tonga, who lost each of their four qualifying matches, will have to play off against either the Cook Islands or Papua New Guinea for a chance to go into the repechage draw against either Japan or Korea.

The eight quarter-finalists from the last World Cup in 1999 -- Australia, France, South Africa, New Zealand, Wales, England, Scotland and Argentina -- were all granted automatic places in the 2003 tournament with the remaining spots being decided by a series of regional qualifiers in Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas.

The schedule for the tournament was released in Sydney in May but the final line-up of the 20 competing teams will not be known until early next year.

With Fiji and Samoa now safely through to the finals, just 10 more places are available.

World Cup pools

Pool A - Australia, Argentina, Europe 1, Europe 4, Africa 1

Pool B - France, Scotland, Fiji, Asia 1, Repechage 1

Pool C - South Africa, England, Samoa, America 2, Europe 3

Pool D - New Zealand, Wales, America 1, Europe 2, Repechage 2

- NZPA