I can scarcely believe I'm saying this, especially after the miserable first half we had, but ...

WE'RE GOING TO THE WORLD CUP!

We needed two things to go our way overnight. Firstly, we had to beat Turkey. This we did, 52-17.

But that wasn't enough. We also needed Ukraine to beat the Czech Republic. That didn't seem too likely, but Ukraine achieved a 31-28 upset!

So, that meant that both NZ and the Czech Republic finished on 4 wins and 4 losses apiece, but New Zealand qualifies second by dint of a superior goal difference.

Thus, after a terrible first half of the campaign, with several desperately close defeats, we're in the World Cup for just the second time!

Thanks, and congratulations to you as well.

Thanks SrednaD.

There's quite a strong South American flavour to our World Cup group, with Argentina, Brazil and Poland, all of whom are quite highly ranked, so we're very much the underdogs. But we're used to that.

Had three straight losses last time NZ was in the World Cup, so hoping to maybe pull off an inaugural win this time around.

Round 1 result: Argentina 49 New Zealand 28.

I thought most of the Shaky Islanders players had sold to human teams now.

The Dunedin Huskies are bot now, and they have quite a few players in the national squad, but there's nobody better right now unfortunately.

Anyway, bad news, good news, bad news again for NZ.

First bit of bad news: Brazil beat NZ 42-24.

Now for the good news: We beat Poland 33-14 in the final round! That is our first-ever victory in a World Cup proper.

But more bad news, alas: three teams in Group C, including NZ, finished on 1 win and 2 losses. But Brazil had the best goal difference of those three, so they go through with unbeaten Argentina.

Well, a little good news to finish: We didn't come last! Poland took the Group C wooden spoon.

So this has basically been our best result so far, in that not only did we qualify for the World Cup (if only by the skin of our teeth), but we also won a game in the next phase. It's progress.