European Nations Cup (rugby union)
Current season, competition or edition: 2014-16 ENC 1st Division | |
| Sport | Rugby union |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2000 |
| No. of teams | See below |
| Continent | Europe |
| Most recent champion(s) |
 Georgia |
| Most titles |
 France (25),  Romania (9), Georgia (8) |
The European Nations Cup, or ENC – sometimes referred to as the Six Nations B – is the European Championship for tier 2 and tier 3 rugby union nations.
The tournament is split into 7 divisions, each with 4-6 teams. The divisions play on a two-year cycle with the teams playing each other both home and away. Since 2009, the title is assigned according to a one-year ranking. The current champions are Georgia, who won the 2014 Title.
Since Italy's joining the Five Nations Championship in 2000, making it the Six Nations, there has been no promotion, or relegation, between the European Nations Cup and the Six Nations.
History
| Key | |
|---|---|
| Division 1A | |
| Division 1B | |
| Division 2A | |
| Division 2B | |
| Division 2C | |
| Division 2D | |
| Division 3A | |
| Six Nations | |
| Others | |
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 and were crowned after a 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 31-23 victory in Tbilisi.
Portugal were 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 beat 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, after their display at the 2007 Rugby World Cup. The Russians recorded their highest ever finish in second. The Czech Republic were the team to finish on the bottom of the table, losing all of their matches, 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, and there were wins for Portugal and Russia in Bucharest.
Faced with the possibility to miss for the first time ever a Rugby World Cup, Romania 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 the 2011 edition, after beating Romania 18-11 in Tbilisi. The promoted team, Ukraine, lost all of their matches, except a single win over Portugal.
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 Autumn, 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 and standings (2014–2016)
| * | Team promoted from the division below after the 2012–14 season |
| † | Team relegated from the division above after the 2012–14 season |
| ‡ | Team's first season |
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Last updated: 13 March 2015.
The 1930s: the first four tournaments
| Year | Host city | Winner | Second place | Third place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1936 | Berlin | France |
.svg.png){kind=small} Germany |
.svg.png){kind=small} Italy |
| 1937 | Paris | France |
Italy |
Germany |
| 1938 | Bucharest | France |
Germany |
Romania |
The 1950s: the European Cup
| Year | Winner | Second place | Third place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 | France |
 Italy |
 West Germany |
| 1954 | France |
Italy |
.svg.png){kind=small} Spain |
The Nations Cup 1966-1973
| Year | Winner | Second place | Third place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1965/1966 | France |
Italy |
.svg.png){kind=small} Romania |
| 1966/1967 | France |
Romania |
Italy |
| 1967/1968 | France |
Romania |
 Czechoslovakia |
| 1968/1969 | Romania |
France |
Czechoslovakia |
| 1969/1970 | France |
Romania |
Italy |
| 1970/1971 | France |
Romania |
 Morocco |
| 1971/1972 | France |
Romania |
Morocco |
| 1972/1973 | France |
Romania |
Spain |
The FIRA Trophy 1974-1997
| Year | Winner | Second place | Third place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973/1974 | France |
Romania |
Spain |
| 1974/1975 | Romania |
France |
Italy |
| 1975/1976 | France |
Italy |
Romania |
| 1976/1977 | Romania |
France |
Italy |
| 1977/1978 | France |
Romania |
.svg.png){kind=small} Spain |
| 1978/1979 | France |
Romania |
 Soviet Union |
| 1979/1980 | France |
Romania |
Italy |
| 1980/1981 | Romania |
France |
Soviet Union |
| 1981/1982 | France |
Italy |
Romania |
| 1982/1983 | Romania |
Italy |
Soviet Union |
| 1983/1984 | France |
Romania |
Italy |
| 1984/1985 | France |
Soviet Union |
Italy |
| 1985/1987 | France |
Soviet Union |
Romania |
| 1987/1989 | France |
Soviet Union |
Romania |
| 1989/1990 | France |
Soviet Union |
Romania |
| 1990/1992 | France |
Italy |
Romania |
| 1992/1994 | France |
Italy |
Romania |
| 1995/1997 | Italy |
France |
Romania |
European Nations Cup (2000 – present)
| Year | First Division | Lower Division Champions | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | Second | Third | Relegated | Division 2 | Division 3 | |||
| 2000 | Romania |
Georgia |
Morocco |
 Russia |
 Czech Republic | |||
| 2001 | Georgia |
Romania |
Russia |
 Poland |
Not played [1] | |||
| 2001–2002 | Romania |
Georgia |
Russia |
 Netherlands |
Czech Republic[2] |
 Slovenia | ||
| 2003–2004 |  Portugal |
Romania |
Georgia |
 Spain |
 Ukraine |
 Moldova | ||
| 2005–2006 | Romania |
Georgia |
Portugal |
Ukraine |
Spain |
 Latvia | ||
| 2007–2008 | Georgia |
Russia |
Romania |
Czech Republic |
Germany |
 Sweden | ||
| 2008–2009 | Georgia |
Russia |
Portugal |
Germany [3] |
Ukraine |
 Lithuania | ||
| 2010 | Romania |
Georgia |
Russia | |||||
| 2011 | Georgia |
Romania |
Portugal |
Ukraine [4] |
Sweden |
 Bosnia and Herzegovina | ||
| 2012 | Georgia |
Spain |
Romania | |||||
| 2013 | Georgia |
Romania |
Russia |
.svg.png){kind=small} Belgium [5] |
Netherlands |
 Turkey | ||
| 2014 | Georgia |
Romania |
Russia | |||||
| 2015 | Georgia |
Romania |
Spain |
TBD | TBD | TBD | ||
| 2016 | TBD | TBD | TBD | |||||
European Nations Cup All-Time Table (2000-2015)
| Nation | Champs | Games | Won | Draw | Lost | Win/Lose Percentage | Last Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia |
8 | 80 | 64 | 4 | 12 | 84% | 2015 |
| Romania |
4 | 80 | 58 | 2 | 20 | 74% | 2015 |
| Morocco |
0 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 60% | 2000 |
| Russia |
0 | 74 | 42 | 3 | 29 | 59% | 2015 |
| Portugal |
1 | 80 | 35 | 3 | 42 | 45% | 2015 |
| Spain |
0 | 70 | 21 | 3 | 46 | 34% | 2015 |
| Czech Republic |
0 | 29 | 6 | 0 | 23 | 21% | 2007-2008 |
| Netherlands |
0 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 7% | 2001-2002 |
| Ukraine |
0 | 20 | 1 | 0 | 19 | 5% | 2012 |
| Belgium |
0 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 0% | 2014 |
| Germany |
0 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 0% | 2015 |
European Nations Cup Winners (2000-2015)
| Nation | Winner | Runner-up | Third Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia |
8 | 4 | 1 |
| Romania |
4 | 6 | 2 |
| Portugal |
1 | 0 | 3 |
| Russia |
0 | 2 | 5 |
| Spain |
0 | 1 | 1 |
| Morocco |
0 | 0 | 1 |
Other trophies
Several other trophies are contested within the main competition, mostly as long-standing fixtures between pairs of teams.
- Viriato Cup: Portugal versus Spain. The most recent Viriato Cup match was draw, so Spain kept the trophy (2013)
- Trophy of the Two Iberias: Georgia versus Spain. The most recent Trophy of the Two Iberias match was won by Georgia (2013)
- Treasure of Lipovens: Romania versus Russia. The most recent Treasure of Lipovens match was won by Romania (2013)
- Antim Cup: Romania versus Georgia. The most recent Antim Cup match was won by Georgia (2013)
- Moscow Gold: Russia versus Spain. The most recent Moscow Gold match was won by Russia (2013)
- Coltan Cup: Portugal versus Belgium. The most recent Coltan Cup match was won by Portugal (2013)
- Trajan's Column: Spain versus Romania. The most recent Trajan's Column match was won by Romania (2013)
- Suebi Bowl: Germany versus Portugal. The most recent Suebi Bowl match was won by Portugal (2010)
See also
- Rugby World Cup
- History of rugby union matches between Georgia and Romania
- Antim Cup
- Six Nations Championship
- Rugby Europe (formerly FIRA–AER)
References
- ↑ Was played the first round of 2003 Rugby World Cup – European qualification
- ↑ Was played as the second round of 2003 Rugby World Cup – European qualification
- ↑ relegation and promotion on two year based ranking
- ↑ relegation and promotion on two year based ranking
- ↑ relegation and promotion on two year based ranking
External links
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