Samoa kicked off their campaign to clinch the final place at Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia with a comfortable 48-10 win over Brazil in the opening match of the Final Qualification Tournament in Dubai.

While in the second match Belgium put in a superb overall performance to defeat RWC regulars Namibia 22-15 and put themselves one step closer to fulfilling their own Rugby World Cup dream.

SAMOA 48-10 BRAZIL

Samoa's victory was not as cut-and-dry as the scoreline might suggest with the plucky Os Tupis making their opponents work hard right to the final whistle, even crossing for the last try in the 73rd minute.

Manu Samoa started brightly with smart work down the right touchline seeing full-back Jacob Umaga crossing for the opening score on seven minutes. Umaga landed the conversion and a penalty to make it 10-0 shortly afterwards, but then a yellow card to Samoan centre Tumua Manu gave Brazil the numerical advantage.

Os Tupis took their chance with a clever interchange on the left seeing RC Vannes centre Theo Bastardie cross for Brazil’s opening try, a score that was greeted with considerable enthusiasm by the Brazilian contingent in the vocal crowd.

Samoa took control for the rest of the half with tries for Manu, making amends for his yellow card, and left wing Va'afauese Apelu Maliko, with further conversions to Umaga making the half-time score 29-5.

When the second half started with a try to Melani Nanai for Samoa and a yellow card to Brazil hooker William Rebolo it looked like the score would run away from Os Tupis. But courageous defence from Brazil restricted Samoa to just two more tries, to Iakopo Petelo-Mapu and a second to Manu, before replacement hooker Henrique Ferreira crossed for the final five-pointer of the match.

After the match Samoa head coach Tusi Pisi was keen for his team to enjoy their first victory of the year after a disappointing run of form: “We just talked about it there [in the huddle after the game]. We just need to savour the feeling and make sure we have our feet with the now and enjoy it, and then move on to the next game.”

Brazil Director of Rugby Josh Reeves was understandably pleased with the courage his team showed throughout the full eighty minutes: “Yeah, we were just talking about the amount of emotional delivery we can bring to the game. We really showed we were wanting to fight for every ball and obviously never give up, so I think the boys really grew throughout the game.”

BELGIUM 22-15 NAMIBIA

Roared on by vocal Belgium support, the Black Devils fully deserved their 22-15 victory in a fiercely contested match up at The Sevens Stadium in Dubai.

It was a superbly organised team effort from Belgium where they excelled in every facet of the game, and every time Namibia did threaten either committed defence, a lineout steal or superb work at the breakdown turned the Welwitschias back.

The writing was on the wall early for Namibia, after a magnificent start from Belgium. A clever kick-off saw the Black Devils force a Namibian mistake and win back possession. They then put the ball through multiple phases, working both sides of the defensive line till prop Jean-Baptiste Declercq burst through from close range to score.

In fact, so superbly did Belgium control the game from the off that Namibia did not touch the ball until four minutes had elapsed, and only then to put a clearing kick out on the full. Namibia finally got possession on five minutes with a well-won turnover at the breakdown.

Belgium fly-half Matias Remue, who evokes memories of a young Dan Carter with his overall skills and dangerous attacking play, was brilliant for the Black Devils, constantly piercing the Namibia defence from close to the ruck.

Namibia then enjoyed a great spell of pressure as they looked to get on the board but a lightning quick counter-attack from the elusive Remue and then a perfectly timed turnover from captain Jean-Maurice Decubber metres out from Belgium’s line saw the Black Devils maintain their lead.

Another turnover penalty on 16 minutes saw Belgium increase their lead with Remue landing a penalty from 40 metres out to make it 10-0.

Namibia had a chance on 21 minutes to put their first points on the board, but after opting for a lineout rather than a kick at goal the ball was knocked on just metres out from the Belgium line again. A strong scrum then saw Belgium win a penalty to clear their lines.

Namibia came again but once more superb work at the breakdown by Decubber won Belgium another penalty. From the resulting lineout Belgium again worked it through the phases until scrum-half Julien Berger dove under the posts to make it 17-0 with Remue adding another conversion.

Early in the second half Namibia finally got on the board with a penalty and despite both teams losing players to yellow cards, Belgium were able to keep the game tight as the clock ticked down.

When Namibia lost another player, flanker Max Katjijeko, to a yellow card with 18 minutes remaining hopes of a dramatic comeback were failing and despite a superb 50:22 from full-back Jay-Cee Nel giving the Welwitschias some hope, another well-worked try to Decubber saw Belgium set up perhaps the most important victory in their nation’s rugby history.

Two late tries for Namibia, to Johan Deysel and Johan Luttig, brought some respectability to the scoreline, and a losing bonus point, but the day belonged to Belgium.

A downcast Namibia head coach Pieter Rossouw said after the match: “Very disappointed, I felt that we beat ourselves tonight. We made so many errors and we had a few opportunities which we didn't use obviously but congratulations to Belgium.”

While for an elated Belgium coach Laurent Dossat the job is only partly done: “So I'm really happy for the boys,” he said. “We wanted to have a good start of the tournament. I said that when it was 17-3 or 17-0 I was not sure we were going to win because there was a really good team in front of us, but we kept fighting and the boys said to themselves ‘Yeah we stay alive, the adventure keeps going’.

“In general with the game I’m really happy with the behaviour of the players. Lots of energy, good mindset but if you're going to go further into this tournament the discipline has to be better and we have less penalties (against us).”

Belgium will next face Brazil on Thursday, while Namibia must now pull off an upset over Samoa in their next match to keep their Rugby World Cup 2027 dream alive.