European Rugby Championship resumes
Roar Guru By Harry Kimble, 7 Feb 2009 Harry Kimble is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- IRB, Rugby Union, Rugby World Cup, RWC, Six Nations
It is not only the Six Nation Championship that starts this week. The 2008-10 European Rugby Championships resume.
Variously known as Six Nations B, European Rugby Championships and European Nations Cup, this is Europe’s first or A division and the matches form part of the Rugby World Cup 2011 qualifying games.
Matches are played over two years so that each competition plays both home and away matches. There is promotion and relegation at the end of each series.
The A division for the current series is between Georgia (IRB ranking 14), Romania (17), Russia (18), Spain (21), Portugal (23) and Germany (26). Germany is the new team, having replaced the Czech Republic, who have been relegated to the B division.
At the end of last year, the opening two games were played. Spain featured in both of them, beating Germany, 22-11, and then easily beaten by Russia, 42-15.
From this weekend, the A division games will coincide with the six nations games.
The draw for the coming weekend is Germany plays Georgia in Heidelberg, Spain against Russia in Madrid and Portugal will take on Russia in Lisbon. All the host nations are the underdogs, so it will be interesting to see how they fare against the more fancied opposition.
The form team at the moment is Russia, which has improved over the past year, shown with the easy victory over Spain and the defeat of Romania in both rounds of the 2006-08 competition.
In fact, Russia only lost two games in that series, both at the hands of Georgia. Almost all the Russian players come from the local national league. Also, Russia have an added incentive as it was their loss to Portugal that prevented them from reaching the RWC2007 finals in France.
The other thing that is of interest is that both these teams use the most attacking and running Rugby in Europe.
Although Portugal are on the sevens circuit, there has been a steady fall in standard since the heights of the 2007 World Cup finals.
Russia to win.
Spain had its pride dented with the loss to Russia and was not impressive with the win over Germany.
In the last series, Spain beat the Czech Republic to stay in the top division but will need to improve to hold its position this time.
Romania has also been in the doldrums, with losses to Georgia and Russia, and did not perform very well in the last RWC. The players are a mixed bag. Most come from the local Romanian competition, four from France and one that plays in England.
The local Romanian playing standard is not all that good and is probably the main reason why the national team has slipped from the glory days when most of the team was French-based.
Romania to outlast Spain.
There will be much interest in the other game between Germany and Georgia.
Georgia’s Australian coach, Tim Lane, has made no secret that he wants the Lelos to not only win the series but completely dominate it and eventually be part of the Six Nations.
He has been able to get his best squad together and train the team for some time. His 24 man squad is made up of 18 from France, three who play in Romania, two in Russia and one who plys his trade in Andorra.
It is a formidable team and the Georgians want nothing less than a 60 point margin victory. On the other hand, of Germany’s 24 man squad, 15 play in the local German low-standard competition and four play in France, three in the UK and one each from South Africa and Italy.
The national teams have met only once, in 1995, in Tbilisi, with Georgia claiming a 14-3 victory.
It will be a case now of game-hardened professionals playing enthusiastic amateurs.
Georgia will win convincingly, but not by Lane’s 60 point margin
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The Crowd Says (6) | Page 1 of Comments
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- Explore:
- IRB, Rugby Union, Rugby World Cup, RWC, Six Nations
February 7th 2009 @ 4:56am
pothale said | February 7th 2009 @ 4:56am | Report comment
Good article, mate. Very interesting. Georgia are coming on in leaps and bounds. They made us look silly in the WC, and with the addition of some skills and running stamina into the backline could easily expand the 6 Nations. And, unlike the far apart 3N, the travel times would not be too arduous.
February 7th 2009 @ 12:25pm
sheek said | February 7th 2009 @ 12:25pm | Report comment
Good stuff. Weren’t we Aussies going to try & pinch a few Georgian front-rowers for the Wallabies?
February 8th 2009 @ 11:01am
Harry Kimble said | February 8th 2009 @ 11:01am | Report comment
And here are the results
in Madrid:- Romania 19 beat Spain 10 (2 tries to 1) H/t 11-10. crowd 5,000, cold
in Lisbon:- Russia 18 beat Portugal 14 (2 tries each) H/t 15-0 .crowd, 2,000 very cold
in Heidelberg:- Georgia 38 beat Germany 5 (6 tries to 1) h/t 10-5. crowd 4,000 extremely heavy rain
February 9th 2009 @ 5:13pm
AndyS said | February 9th 2009 @ 5:13pm | Report comment
I’ve often thought they should be given something to play for, specifically a relegation play-off with the bottom placed team in the 6N.
February 9th 2009 @ 5:15pm
True Tah said | February 9th 2009 @ 5:15pm | Report comment
Andy,
it wouldnt work – although Scotland would probably win the odd game.
February 10th 2009 @ 1:15pm
nickypeeves said | February 10th 2009 @ 1:15pm | Report comment
i like andy’s idea.
although the teams coming up for the 2nd grade comp would really battle to actually beat the 6N loser, a big match at a big stadium would do wonders for exposing them to true international rugby.
not to mention expose the better players from the teams to potential professional careers. which in turn would lead to them becoming better and thus there country.