Just two places at Rugby World Cup 2019 remain to be decided, with five teams still in contention for the final berths in next year's competition in Japan.

One of those places will be decided next month in Windhoek when the final round of the Rugby Africa Championship sees Namibia and Kenya going head-to-head on 18 August in a title-decider that will see the winner bound for Japan and the loser heading to Marseille in November for the repechage tournament that will determine the final qualifier for RWC 2019.

While the Welwitschias sat out the latest round of matches in the Rugby Africa Championship both teams are well clear of the chasing pack after three straight wins. Kenya stayed in touch at the top with a 38-22 victory over Uganda in Nairobi but their failure to earn a bonus point from any of their matches leaves them three points adrift of the reigning champions in pursuit of the title and the Africa 1 ticket to Rugby World Cup 2019.

While the winner next month will book a slot alongside New Zealand, South Africa and Italy in Pool B in Japan, the loser will go into the repechage tournament in Marseille alongside Canada, Germany and Hong Kong, who ran out comfortable 51-0 winners over the Cook Islands in their Asia-Oceania play-off second leg at the Hong Kong Football Club.

The Asia Rugby Championship 2018 winners join the Canucks, who lost out to Uruguay for the final Americas berth, and Germany who emerged from a controversial Rugby Europe Championship series to contest the RWS 2019 play-off against Samoa, which went the way of the Pacific Islanders.

While Hong Kong only needed to avoid a loss of more than 23 points to advance, having won the first leg 26-3 in Rarotonga, coach Leigh Jones had predicted more was to come from his charges and they duly delivered with a six-try shutout of the Cook Islands.

Hong Kong led 17-0 at half-time after tries from winger Salom Yiu Kam-shing and centre Max Woodward, fly-half Matt Rosslee converting both tries and adding a penalty. Rosslee started the second-half by slotting a penalty with Jamie Hood and Alex Post, who grabbed a second-half brace in only his third test, adding tries to take Hong Kong clear.

A penalty try also went to Hong Kong, with replacement fly-half Ben Rimene slotting a drop goal to help the home side through the 50-point mark.