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Portugal out to spoil European Championship for Georgian juggernaut
By Tom Vinicombe
After four rounds of increasing intensity, the Rugby Europe Championship will reach a crescendo this weekend in a jam-packed Sunday of finals rugby.
The showpiece fixture will see Georgia take on Portugal on Sunday evening to determine this year's REC champion but all eight nations will be involved on finals day.
Georgia will go into the grand final as favourites having won 11 of the past 12 tournaments, dropping just a handful of matches throughout that incredibly successful period. They've unsurprisingly also held the wood over Portugal during their domination of the 'Six Nations B', as it's colloquially referred to. In fact, not since 2005 has Portugal tasted victory over their European rivals - but that doesn't mean they should be ruled out altogether.
The past two matches between Georgia and Portugal have been closely-fought affairs, with Georgia securing a 23-14 victory during last 2022's mid-year Tests and the two sides fighting out a 25-all draw earlier in the year. Notably, both those fixtures were played in Georgia, whereas this year's clash will take place on neutral ground, with Spain playing host.
The new REC format for 2023 saw the eight competing nations split into two pools, with Georgia and Spain progressing from Group A to the top half of the finals draw and Romania and Portugal joining them from Group B.
In the competition semi-finals, Georgia scored a comfortable 31-7 win over Romania while Portugal bounced back from a 10-0 deficit after 20 minutes to bank a 27-10 comeback victory over Spain in the all-Iberian affair.
In the lower half of the draw, the Netherlands claimed a 31-19 victory over Belgium and Germany upset Poland 23-18.
This Sunday's finals day sees the top four sides travel to Badajoz, Spain with the bottom four teams playing in Amsterdam.
Rugby Europe Championship finals fixtures (all times CET), 19 March 2023:
12:30pm Belgium v Poland (7th/8th), Amsterdam
3:00pm Netherlands v Germany (5th/6th), Amsterdam
5:00pm Romania v Spain (bronze play-off), Badajoz
8:00pm Georgia v Romania (grand final), Badajoz
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Latest Comments
Yep NZ national u85 team is touring there atm I think (or just has).
Go to commentsWhat are they gonna do with the 500k and what does that achieve? They could dump the whole side and pick amateurs and save 10million, but what is that going to achieve?
The problem it feels like to me is I didn't hear what Gatland is going to do in order to win the 6N next year. How is he helping the problem. It just sounds like they're expecting miracles and for Gatland to turn around the national teams results, but what good is that when you're not fixing any of the problems and you'll just be back where you were when Gatland and the old players leave?
I think you are totally wrong in your stance. Wales abosolutely need to spend that 500k by investing in their future, it just doesn't sound like theyre giving Gatland any more resources to do it with. They're not using that 500k very well.
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