2014 European Nations Cup Division 1: Round One. 01/02/14

[LittleGuy]

The 2014 European Nations Cup begins on the first weekend of February with some intruiging contests. Will Romania and Georgia continue their good November form? Will Spain or Russia rebound from similarly dreadful EOYT's? Will Belgium build on last years plucky campaign.

This year's edition will also once again double as RWCQers. That will however be determined in a combined points table from last year's event. Romania and Georgia are extremely likely to qualify for the Europe 1 and 2 spots. Though the repechage positon of third place is held by Russia at the moment. Likewise the bottom team of the combined year's will be dropped from the Top division of the ENC to be replaced by the top team from the 2nd division.

Note that if anyone feels as though any one of these games this year deserves it's own thread feel free to start one, but I'm thinking a combined thread is the best way to go. (with the possible exception of Georgia vs. Romania later in the winter)

Edit: Could have sworn we had a Belgium logo in the archive, it may be in a different section of the archive though.

Edit Edit: Yep found it......nevermind.

 

[Croket66]

Russia extented squad :

Props :
Alexey Volkov (VVA Saracens Monino)
Magomed Davudov (Kuban Krasnodar)
Evgeny Pronenko (Enisey-STM Krasnoyarsk)
Sergey Sekisov (Agro-Strela Kazan)
Grigory Tsnobiladze (Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk)
Innokenty Zykov (Enisey-STM Krasnoyarsk)

Hookers :
Vladislav Korshunov (VVA Saracens Monino)
Stanislav Selsky (Enisey-STM Krasnoyarsk)
Valery Tsnobiladze (Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk)

Locks :
Denis Antonov (Slava-CSP Moscow)
Kirill Kulemin (Sale Sharks, England)
Andrey Ostrikov (Sale Sharks, England)
Alexander Voytov (VVA Saracens Monino)

Backrow :
Pavel Butenko (Enisey-STM Krasnoyarsk)
Artem Fatakhov (VVA Saracens Monino)
Andrey Garbuzov (Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk)
Viktor Gresev (Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk)
Alexander Khudyakov (Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk)
Andrey Temnov (Enisey-STM Krasnoyarsk)

Scrumhalves :
Anton Ryabov (Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk)
Alexander Shakirov (Agro-Strela Kazan)
Alexander Yanyushkin (VVA Saracens Monino)

Flyhalves :
Yuri Kushnarev (Kuban Krasnodar)
Sergey Sugrobov (Slava-CSP Moscow)
Sergey Yanyushkin (VVA Saracens Monino)

Centres :
Igor Galinovsky (Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk)
Dimitry Gerasimov (Enisey-STM Krasnoyarsk)
Alexey Makovetsky (Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk)
Yaroslav Rechnev (Enisey-STM Krasnoyarsk)

Wings :
Vasily Artemyev (Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk)*
Vladimir Ostroushko (Kuban Krasnodar)

Fullbacks :
Andrey Otrokov (Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk)

* Northampton Saints winger Vasily Artemyev just signed a 3 years deal with the current russian champion, Krasny Yar.

 

[dragos03]

Here's the current ranking:
1. Georgia 19p
2. Romania 19p
3. Russia 14p
4. Portugal 7p
5. Belgium 5p
6. Spain 5p

I think that Romania and Georgia will take the top spots (but it remains to be seen in what order) and Russia will end 3rd and claim the repechage position (they have 7 points ahead of Portugal at the moment). It will be a fierce battle to avoid relegation between the bottom three teams though. Spain have changed their coach and recalled some of their French players, so they could be much stronger this season. Portugal have also changed many of their players and I think they are trying to build a team for the future with many youngsters being tested (they are given some experience in the Amlin Challenge Cup as well this season).

Russia was supposed to have some eligible foreigners in 2014 but none of them is in that extended squad, any idea why?

 

[LittleGuy]

For some reason I thought Russia was a little closer to the other three in points, I should have double checked last year's standings, seems they have an edge in the repechage race than.

 

[Canadian_Rugger]

any streams available?

 

[LittleGuy]

any streams available?

I beleive many of the Unions in the ENC offer free and legal streams through their official sites or national TV channels, hopefully we can get the specifics closer to game day as since most of them are offical we will be able to discuss them openly and link to them on here, (if that is the case.)

 

[Nielsch]

Thanks for opening this topic. I always find this an interesting tournament. Last year we had one topic for the whole tournament, let's see if we can do better this year.

http://www.therugbyforum.com/threads/30042-2013-European-Nations-Cup-Six-Nations-B

 

[LittleGuy]

Thanks for opening this topic. I always find this an interesting tournament. Last year we had one topic for the whole tournament, let's see if we can do better this year.

http://www.therugbyforum.com/threads/30042-2013-European-Nations-Cup-Six-Nations-B

Thank you Nielsh, this is something I had been thinking of doing for some time, the one thread for the whole tournament didn't do justice to the level of coverage the competition deserves, yet I felt a thread per game might lead to one of the games per week being a little quiet, hopefully we can get a couple of pages of discussion on most rounds this season particularly with RWC spots on the line.

 

[Croket66]

Venues


[TABLE="width: 800"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD]




Romania v. Portugal

Cluj Arena,
Cluj
(31 500)[/TD]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]




Spain v. Russia

Estadio Nacional Complutense,
Madrid
(12 400)[/TD]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]




Georgia v. Belgium

Avchala Stadium,
Tbilisi
(2 500)[/TD]
[TD]

[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]

 

[LittleGuy]

Is there any reason for the particularly small Georgian ground Croket? I had heard they were having some stadium availability issues, or is just a small crowd expected for Belgium? Good for Romania on spreading out some of the contetsts and not just keeping the tests in Bucharest.

 

[dragos03]

None of the three Romanian home games will be played in Bucharest this spring. The first two will be in Cluj while the last match (against Belgium) will be played in the Black Sea city of Constanta. This is part of a federation campaign to make rugby more popular in the country, I would expect the Oaks to visit more cities in the following years.

 

[Dato]

Dinamo Arena (biggest Stadium in Georgia) is owned by Football Club Dinamo Tbilisi, Second biggest arena - Mikheil Meskhi is owned by the Georgian Football Federation. Therefore, each year GRU has availability issues. Dinamo Arena will be available for Geo-Russia and Mickheil Meskhi for GEO-Romania.
Even though 3 rugby stadiums were built in recent years and 3 more is being built, still the GRU ha problems, as their capacity is not enough for international tests.

 

[Dato]

Indeed, this ENC will be interesting than ever. Georgia and Romania will fight for first place, as both of them want to qualify in RWC Pool C, where they would have decent chance to win 2 games. Russia most probably shall stay at 3rd place and relegation battle would be equally intriguing.

 

[dragos03]

Spain vs Russia is the most interesting match of the round. It's a must win for both teams, a Russian win would make Spain the relegation favorite and give Russia a big lead in the repechage fight. If Spain wins, it would make the competition for relegation and 3rd spot even more close.

Romania and Georgia should both win their matches, but any bonus points will be important for the final ranking.

 

[Toko_11]

I was always wondering what that bridge thingy was behind the stadium in Spain ... is it a bridge ? and if so why ?

 

[Nielsch]

Is there any reason for the particularly small Georgian ground Croket? I had heard they were having some stadium availability issues, or is just a small crowd expected for Belgium? Good for Romania on spreading out some of the contetsts and not just keeping the tests in Bucharest.

Romania wanted to play here last season against Georgia but Georgia refused.

 

[Nielsch]

Spain should get a decent stadium in order to improve the attractiveness of their product. Teresa Rivero seems like a nice stadium in Madrid.

 

[white bear]

The correct policy Federation Romania. We are talking about the same thing in Russia among the fans, but our federation to bury their heads in the sand .... More than 90% all home matches of Russia in ENC play in Krasnodar Region (Krasnodar and Sochi). With our geography - is death rugby.

 

[white bear]

to dragos03
And you do not know how much to pay the Romanian Federation for rent in Cluj stadium for 1 match?

 

[dragos03]

I don't know. I've heard that they pay no rent but the stadium administrators get all the gate money, but I don't know if it's true.

Normally, local authorities consider a great honor to have the national team play in their city, so I don't think the rent amount is an issue.