European Nations Cup (rugby union)

The European Nations Cup (also known as ENC or sometimes as Six Nations B) is the European Championship for tier 2 and tier 3 rugby union nations. The Championship is split into 7 divisions with 5 or 6 teams in each. The divisions play on a two-year cycle with the teams playing each other both home and away. From 2009 onward, the title is assigned according to an one-year ranking. So Georgia won the 2009 title ^[1] and Romania the title for 2010.^[2] The same for the 2011-2012 period.^[3]

At present, there is no promotion or relegation between the European Nations Cup and the Six Nations. The current champions are Georgia, who won the 2011 First Division.

History

After the setup of the divisional system in 2000, Romania won the first competition with maximum of points, with the initial season also including Morocco.

Russia then replaced Morocco in 2001 when Georgia secured the title after a consistent performance, crowned after a decisive 31-20 win over Romania in Bucharest. As the competition format changed from a one-year tournament to two-years, the Netherlands were not relegated after this season.

Romania started 2002 trailing Georgia after the 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 at the top of the 2003-04 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 home win over Russia. The Russia - Czech Republic game was rescheduled due to bad weather and was eventually cancelled.

The 2005-06 championships also served as a qualifying pool for the 2007 Rugby World Cup. Romania triumphed even though they finished level on points with Georgia, while Ukraine was relegated after losing all matches.

The 2007-08 edition saw the return of the Spanish to the top Division. The winners were Georgia, building on their impressive display at the 2007 Rugby World Cup. The Russians showed their continuing emergence with their highest ever finish in second, pushing Georgia all the way. The Czech Republic were the team to finish on the bottom of the pile with a whitewash of defeats, relegating them back to Division 2A.

A new format change was decided at the beginning of 2009. Each calendar year has its own champion, but the cumulated ranking over two years decides the team to relegate. The 2009-10 edition was also basis for European Qualification to the 2011 Rugby World Cup. The 2009 season saw the début of Germany in the top division, Georgia defending their title, as well as some surprising results, like the wins of Portugal and Russia in Bucharest.

Faced with the possibility to miss for the first time ever a Rugby World Cup, Romania worked hard and were rewarded with the 2010 title. This feat was however not enough to overtake Georgia and Russia, who, helped by their good results from the previous year, gained the automatic qualification, leaving Romania to go through the Play-Off Qualification Rounds. Germany was relegated after failing to win any games.

Georgia won comfortably the 2011 edition, after beating Romania 18-11 in Tbilisi. The promoted team, Ukraine, failed to impress, losing again all matches.

2010 - New Format

For the 2010-2012 competition (and promotion/relegation between groups going forward to successive competitions), the top two divisions (previously 1 and 2A) were redefined as 1A and 1B, both having 6 teams (previously 6 and 5). The next four levels (previously 2B, 3A, 3B and 3C) become 2A-2D, under the new system, with the remnants of Division 3D making up the initial group of teams labelled as Division 3. In principle, each division is to encompass a different type of competition.

In Division 1, groups have 6 teams (meaning more matches and thus more travel), a significant fraction of the players are assumed to be professional or semi-professional (meaning that fixtures are, as often as possible, scheduled within the IRB's international fixtures time windows when clubs must release players for national duty), and only one team is promoted and one relegated every two years (meaning that the competitions are more stable).

In Division 2, groups have only 5 teams each (usually meaning one home match and one away match in the fall, and the same in the spring, for each team), it is assumed that the majority of players are amateurs (meaning scheduling is not as limited), and in addition to the traditional automatic first-promoted-last-relegated system, fourth place from the higher pool will play second place from the lower pool after every two-year competition, with the winner taking the position in the higher pool. From a five-team group, one team is promoted, one team is relegated and two teams play in playoffs. Thus, a maximum of four of a pool's five teams could change from one two-year competition to the next.

In division 3, a single-location, short-time-period (one week or 10 days) tournament is organised once per year. This minimises travel costs for teams and time-off-work requirements for players, and allows the flexibility of having a different membership every year, rather than requiring the membership to be constant over two years. The best performing team over two years of tournaments is promoted to Division 2.

In the year of transition to the new system (2010), there were no relegations from any division below the highest, because the second-highest (old 2A, new 1B) was expanded by one team.

Current divisions (2010-2012)

The thirties: the first four tournaments

The fifties: the European Cup

The Nations Cup 1966-1973

The FIRA Trophy 1974-1997

European Nations Cup (2000 - Present)

Results by nation (after 2000)

See also

• Antim Cup
• FIRA - Association of European Rugby
• Six Nations Championship

References

External links

• FIRA-AER website