Rugby Europe Championship & Trophy 2022

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Spain brought it back to 18-15, but then Georgia went up a gear and Spain faded in the cold conditions. Some good stuff from Georgia to claim the ***le once more winning 49-15. Cannot wait for them to host Italy this summer.

Best REC I've ever seen and we will probably not see its like again if it expands next year. 5 very evenly matched sides really produced constant interest.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Spain brought it back to 18-15, but then Georgia went up a gear and Spain faded in the cold conditions. Some good stuff from Georgia to claim the ***le once more winning 49-15. Cannot wait for them to host Italy this summer.

Best REC I've ever seen and we will probably not see its like again if it expands next year. 5 very evenly matched sides really produced constant interest.

Reckon Georgia can turn them over? There'd never be a more opportunistic time to do it off the back of an Italian 6n win.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

I'd make Italy favourites purely because they seem to have made strides defensively and will not be so anxious now they've a 6N win under their belt. Georgia are quite tempremental. Frankly they stank for most of this tournament but when they turn up like today they can definitely make Italy sweat.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

I have never seen Belgium play this well. Doubly baffling when they have been particularly awful for at least 18 months. I can only assume Poland were rusty from having not player together this year whereas Belgium have had a couple of games. Decent atmosphere in the ground too.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Poland thump Lithuania at home, so the Trophy ends:

Belgium 22
Poland 17
Germany 17

Poland finish second due to beating Germany in the head to head. The top two will be offered promotion to the expanded REC next year subject to unspecified off field considerations.

 

[Yulia]

Poland thump Lithuania at home

Haven't find a highlights video, here's the whole match (from a Polish channel tvp,so with Polish commentators)

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Rugby getting big in Bulgaria? Puts the crowds at Twickenham and Murrayfield to shame for enthusiasm.

 

[Brigantine]

Format for the 2023 Championship.

Split into balanced pools - Georgia and Spain grouped with Netherlands and Germany (replacing Russia); Romania and Portugal grouped with Belgium and Poland.
Get the walkovers out of the way early, then a full 7's cup-and-shield style set of KOs to round off 5 games for everyone

Personally, I would have preferred the last 2 games to just finish off top half & bottom half round robins, (keeping one game's result from the pools) rather than play the same team twice and miss one out

 

[Black Hawk]

How do people think that Germany will get on with such a young team?

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

How do people think that Germany will get on with such a young team?

Welcome! I think it will be extremely challenging for Germany. Georgia and Spain are arguably the strongest sides in the REC. The Dutch have just adopted a high performance programme, have a very good u20 side and a kind of pro side in the Rugby Europe Super Cup and already in the past two months seem to have already improved a fair bit.

Germany doesn't have these advantages and unlike the others in their group they haven't played any tests this month, so they'll be coming to the competition pretty cold. Realistically, if Germany can score a few tries and maybe pick up a losing bonus point it will be an extremely impressive achievement.

Apologies if this is all a bit negative. I hope I'm wrong, but I find the decision to have promoted Belgium, Poland and Germany into the REC hard to justify. If I understand the format they should have a chance to play Poland and Belgium, so a 6th place finish isnt unthinkable, although Belgium should be favourites with their Super Cup experience.

To my mind the priority for Germany should be to get a team in the Super Cup. That way you give yourself half a chance to retain some of your best players into their mid-20s, by which time they will have developed.

 

[Black Hawk]

Thank you for the welcome! I don't think that you're being negative, just realistic! Winning a couple of games over the two-year cycle and staying in the top division would be a postive outcome for us. I'm also hoping that some solid performances in 2023 might see us deemed to be worthy opponents for those countries preparing for the World Cup in July/August because, as you say, we're one of the few teams not to play a test this Autumn.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

Thank you for the welcome! I don't think that you're being negative, just realistic! Winning a couple of games over the two-year cycle and staying in the top division would be a postive outcome for us. I'm also hoping that some solid performances in 2023 might see us deemed to be worthy opponents for those countries preparing for the World Cup in July/August because, as you say, we're one of the few teams not to play a test this Autumn.

The positives for Germans, Dutch, Belgians, Brazilians, Koreans etc is that Chile and Portugal have shown if you can get a funding for a single professional side and high performance programme (neither of which is crazily expensive) you can go from nowhere to a RWC qualifying side within 4-5 years.

The issue of moving from a RWC qualifying side to one that can defeat a Tier1 side remains a huge issue, but if we can get enough countries playing at the level of the USA, Portugal and Chile then I'd like to think we might see a bit more support from World Rugby to get more nations performing at the top level.