European Nations Cup (rugby union)

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European Nations Cup
2007-2008 ENC First Division
Sport	Rugby union
Founded	2000
No. of teams	See below
Country	Europe
Current champions	Romania

The European Nations Cup, also referred to as the "Six Nations B" or simply ENC, is a second-level competition for European rugby union nations, some of which where it is still an amateur sport. It is administered by FIRA-AER.

Despite the name the European Nations Cup is in fact a series of 4 divisions of 6 teams with promotion and relegation between them. There is, however, at present little prospect of any of the teams being promoted to the Six Nations as the gap in terms of playing standards is probably too big. Division One usually uses the same weekends as the Six Nations Championship; other divisions play throughout the year.

Initially started as one-year competition, the championship is now decided over two years with each team playing each other home and away. The format change occurred at the end of the 2001 championship. Georgia is still regarded as the 2001 winner, but the results from that season count in the final standings of the 2001-2002 tournament.

1 History
2 Current divisions
3 First Division championships
4 Overall
- 4.1 By tournament
- 4.2 By country
5 See also
6 External link

[edit] History

Romania won the first competition by a large margin, recording victories in all four matches. Georgia secured the title after a consistent performance, crowned with a decisive 31-20 win over Romania in Bucharest. As the competition format changed from one-year to two-years, Holland was not relegated after this season. Romania started in 2002 trailing Georgia after 2001 results, but managed to win all of the remaining five games, including a hard-fought 31-23 victory in Tbilisi.

Portugal were surprise 16-15 winners over Romania in Lisbon and installed themselves on the top of the 2003 table. In the second half of the competition, Romania seemed back on track (36-6 against Portugal in Constanţa), but went down 24-33 to Russia in Krasnodar. Then Portugal clinched their first title with a last-minute 19-18 win over Russia in Lisbon. The Russia - Czech Republic game was rescheduled due to bad weather and was eventually cancelled. The 2004-06 championships was also serving as a qualifiying group for the 2007 Rugby World Cup. Romania triumphed despite finishing level on points with Georgia, while Ukraine were relegated after losing all matches.