Only a month after Ukraine were crowned Group B winners in the FIRA-AER European Under 19 Championship, this weekend the Group A competition kicks off in Poland with the winner qualifying for the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy 2009.
Romania, Georgia, Russia, Spain, Portugal, hosts Poland, the Netherlands and Belgium will battle for that coveted sport as Europe’s representatives in the eight-team Junior World Rugby Trophy in the cities of Gdansk and Sopot near the Baltic Sea.
Top seeds Romania and Georgia both played in the inaugural IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy in Chile back in April, meeting in the third place playoff with the Georgians running out 34-10 winners in Santiago.
Both will harbour ambitions of contesting the 2009 event and joining the other regional qualifiers confirmed so far - Namibia, Cayman Islands and Papua New Guinea - in battling for promotion to the IRB Junior World Championship in 2010.
However they will underestimate the threat posed by their quarter-final opponents Belgium and the Netherlands respectively at their peril, while the other quartet of nations have their own sights set on being crowned the European champions.
Closing the gaps
Michel Arpaillange, IRB Regional Development Manager for Europe and Tournament Director in Poland, is expecting a competitive tournament to be played out in Poland between 21 and 27 September.
"The gaps have a tendency to decrease. Some nations have done some important work regarding the training of the young players and have now become very competitive, so we have Championship with better quality," he said.
The tournament gets underway on Sunday with the four quarter-finals pitting Romania against Belgium and Spain meeting Portugal in Sopot, while Georgia face the Netherlands and Russia tackle Poland in Gdansk.
Winners of the two matches in Sopot will then meet in the first semi-final in Gdansk on Wednesday, the losers facing each other in the ranking stages. The winners and losers of the other two matches will meet in Sopot the same day.
The tournament then concludes on Saturday 27 September with the final to determine the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy qualifier and the playoffs for third, fifth and seventh places.
Austria: Rauris International Rugby Festival
The first Rauris International Rugby Festival takes place this weekend on 20-21 September in Rauris, Austria.
As part of the celebration of rugby the Austrian national team will take on an England Select XV and there will be an 'emerging nations' women's sevens tournament featuring sides from Austria, Croatia and Hungary.
Several activities will also be made available for both adults and children to find out more about rugby, including a SCRUMSMART workshop, a high level coaching initiative led by England's Rugby World Cup-winning forwards coach Phil Keith-Roach promoting safety in this key area of the game.
For more information go to www.rugby-austria.at
