1995–1997 FIRA Trophy

1995-97 FIRA Trophy
Date 19 November 1995 – 23 May 1997
Countries  Belgium
 France
 Germany
 Italy
 Morocco
 Portugal
 Romania
 Russia
 Spain
 Tunisia
Tournament statistics
Champions  Italy
Matches played 41
← 1992-1994 (Previous) (Next) 1996–1997 →

The 1994-97 "FIRA Trophy" was arranged again with a new format.

Due the work to prepare the 1995 Rugby World Cup, France, Italy an Romania weren't able to participate in 1994-95 season to any competition, so for that season was organized a "Preliminary Tournament", with other ten team.

The better seven team were admitted to this tournament, with France, Italy and Romania.

The tournament lived a great crisis, due to lower interest of the strongest teams: France sent usually minor teams, and Italy were involved in most important match with the strongest team of the world like Australia, England, Wales and so on.

This is evident looking the results and the program. France played the first round robin with the Military team, Italy and Romania didn't arrange a match for this tournament, but considered valid the match played in neutral ground in Argentina for the "Latina Cup". Italy sent two lower level team to play (in the same weekend) the last two match. And the final between Italy and France, were played only in March 1997 a very late respect the program, and while the 1996-97 edition were at half way.

But at the end, this edition was important for the victory of Italy, that, for the first time from 1967 obtain to play in this tournament against the real French national side (that one week before had won the Five Nation tournament). It was a very important victory for the Italy's admission to the "Six Nations Tournament" from 2000.

Contents

First division

Preliminary Tournament

See also: 1994-1995 FIRA Preliminary Tournament

Three directly admitted

And seven qualified from the preliminary tournament

Pool A

Place Nation Games Points Table
points
played won drawn lost for against diff.
1  France 4 4 0 0 194 29 +165 12
2  Spain 4 3 0 1 91 90 +1 10
3  Russia 4 2 0 2 37 95 -58 8
4  Morocco 4 1 0 3 41 70 -29 6
5  Tunisia 4 0 0 4 11 78 -67 2
19 November 1995
 France Military 33 - 12  Russia Blanc-Mesnil
10 December 1995
 Tunisia  11 - 20  Morocco Soussa
6 January 1996
 Morocco  8 - 22 France Military Casablanca
16 March 1996
 Morocco  3 - 24  Spain Casablanca
16 March 1996
 France Military 58 - 0  Tunisia Albertville
31 March 1996
 Spain  9 - 81 France XV Barcelona
14 April 1996
 Spain  52 - 6  Russia Madrid
28 April 1996
 Spain  6 – 0
withdraw		  Tunisia
11 May 1996
 Morocco  10 - 13  Russia Safi
1996
 6 – 0
withdraw		  Tunisia

Pool B

Place Nation Games Points Table
points
played won drawn lost for against diff.
1  Italy 4 4 0 0 249 35 +214 12
2  Romania 4 3 0 1 218 54 +164 10
3  Portugal 4 2 0 2 70 177 -107 8
4  Poland 4 1 0 3 61 195 -134 6
5  Belgium 4 0 0 4 43 180 -137 4
Point system: try 4 pt, conversion: 2 pt., penalty kick 3 pt. drop 3 pt
Click "show" for more info about match (scorers, line-up etc)
28 1995
 Poland  30 - 10  Belgium Warsaw
16 March 1996
 Belgium  18 - 29  Portugal Brussels
13 April 1996
 Romania  92 - 0  Portugal Bucharest
19 April 1996
 Romania A  83 - 5  Belgium Bucharest
27 April 1996
 Portugal  38 - 3  Poland Lisbon
12 May 1996
 Poland  9 - 40  Romania Sochaczew
24 May 1996
 Belgium  10 - 38 Emerging Italy [1] Brussels
25 May 1996
 Italy A  107 - 19  Poland Udine

Final

22 March 1997
 France  32 - 40  Italy Stade Lesdiguières, Grenoble
Referee: McHugh
Try: 14' Penalty try
52' e 82' Bondouy
79' Sadourny

Con: 14', 52' e 82' Aucagne
Pen: 20', 24' Aucagne
 Try: 5' I. Francescato
34' Gardner
56' Croci
74' Vaccari
Con: 5', 34', 56' e 74' Domínguez
Pen: 17', 30', 62' e 68' Domínguez
France 
Jean-Luc Sadourny
Stephane Ougier
Yann Delaigue
Pierre Bondouy
Philippe Saint-André
David Aucagne
Guy Accoceberry
Fabien Pelous
Arnaud Costes
Philippe Benetton
Hugues Miorin
Olivier Merle
Franck Tournaire
Marc Dal Maso
Marc de Rougemont
 
Serge Betsen
Raphael Ibanez
 
Pierre Villepreux
 
FB 15 FB
RW 14 RW
OC 13 OC
IC 12 IC
LW 11 LW
FH 10 FH
SH 9 SH
N8 8 N8
OF 7 OF
BF 6 BF
RL 5 RL
LL 4 LL
TP 3 TP
HK 2 HK
LP 1 LP
Substitutions:
 
 
Coaches
 
 Italy
Javier Pertile
Paolo Vaccari
Stefano Bordon
Ivan Francescato
Marcello Cuttitta
Diego Dominguez
Alessandro Troncon
Julian Gardner
Andrea Sgorlon
Massimo Giovanelli (c)
Giambattista Croci
Walter Cristofoletto
Franco Properzi-Curti
Carlo Orlandi
Massimo Cuttitta
 
Francesco Mazzariol
Gianluca Guidi
 
Georges Coste

Second division

Pool 1 (Gold)

Place Nation Games Points Table
points
played won drawn lost for against diff.
1  Netherlands 4 3 1 0 107 31 +76 11
2  Georgia 4 3 0 1 40 61 -21 10
3  Germany 4 2 0 2 52 48 +4 8
4  Czech Republic 4 1 0 3 62 80 -18 6
5  Denmark 4 0 1 3 37 75 -38 4
23 September 1995
 Germany  28 - 17  Czech Republic Hanover
15 October 1995
 Georgia  14 - 3  Germany Tbilisi
29 October 1995
 Denmark  20 - 20  Netherlands Copenhagen
11 November 1995
 Georgia  3 - 0  Denmark withdraw
24 November 1995
 Netherlands  55 - 3  Georgia Castricum
30 March 1996
 Czech Republic  3 - 26  Netherlands Ricany
12 April 1996
 Georgia  20 - 3  Czech Republic Kutaisi
21 April 1996
 Netherlands  6 - 5  Germany Hilversum
27 April 1996
 Czech Republic  39 - 6  Denmark Ricany
12 May 1996
 Germany  16 - 11  Denmark Hanover

Pool 2 (Silver)

Place Nation Games Points Table
points
played won drawn lost for against diff.
1  Serbia and Montenegro 2 2 0 0 69 21 +48 6
2  Andorra 2 1 0 1 25 38 -13 4
3  Bulgaria 2 0 0 2 17 52 -35 2
24 March 1996
 Serbia and Montenegro  30 - 12  Andorra
20 April 1996
 Andorra  13 - 8  Bulgaria Andorra-la-Vella
18 June 1996
 Bulgaria  9 - 39  Serbia and Montenegro

Third division

pool 1

Place Nation Games Points Table
points
played won drawn lost for against diff.
1  Ukraine 3 3 0 0 84 11 +73 9
2  Latvia 3 2 0 1 50 44 +6 7
3  Moldova 3 1 0 2 20 61 -41 5
4  Lithuania 3 0 0 3 38 76 -38 3
1 May 1996
 Ukraine  38 - 0  Moldova Kiev
11 May 1996
 Latvia  34 - 20  Lithuania
10 October 1996
 Latvia  3 - 19  Ukraine Riga
21 October 1996
 Latvia  13 - 5  Moldova Riga
1996
 Lithuania  8 - 27  Ukraine Vilnius
1996
 Lithuania  10 - 15  Moldova

Pool 2

Place Nation Games Points Table
points
played won drawn lost for against diff.
1  Hungary 2 2 0 0 55 19 +36 6
2  Slovenia 2 1 0 1 23 44 -21 4
3  Austria 2 0 0 2 18 33 -15 2
5 November 1995
 Austria  8 - 21  Hungary Wien
20 April 1996
 Slovenia  12 - 10  Austria
11 May 1996
 Hungary  34 - 11  Slovenia Kecskemet

Pool 3

Place Nation Games Points Table
points
played won drawn lost for against diff.
1  Croatia 2 2 0 0 37 18 +19 6
2  Israel 2 1 0 1 26 33 -7 4
3  Luxembourg 2 0 0 2 24 36 -12 2
28 October 1995
 Luxembourg  12 - 16  Croatia Luxembourg
7 April 1996
 Israel  20 - 12  Luxembourg Tel Aviv
27 April 1996
 Croatia  21 - 6  Israel Split

Note and references

  1. ^ This team was based on the "Students team", preparing the incoming Universitary World Cup, renforced with the precence of the national captain Massimo Giovanelli

Bibliography

External links

FIRA old International competions
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1935 • 1936 • 1937 • 1938
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