Luxembourg achieved their highest score and biggest win in 49 years of playing test rugby when they beat Slovenia 84-7 at the Stade de Luxemburg on Saturday.
Their previous best win and score before the weekend was 78-12 against Norway in April 2000.
Having won all five matches, four with try bonus points, Luxembourg finished eight points clear of Hungary at the top of the Pool B standings.
Captain Christian Olsen and Luca Zanetti capped off performances to be proud of against Slovenia with a hat-trick of tries apiece.
As the team with the best points-per-game record in the Conference system, Luxembourg have earned the right to host the Rugby Europe Trophy 2024-25 promotion play-off match against the pool winner with the second-best record on the weekend of 25-26 May.
Meanwhile, Hungary’s 48-13 win away to Bosnia and Herzegovina ensured them of second place, while also improving their rating in the World Rugby Men’s Rankings powered by Capgemini by 0.86 points.
While that was not enough for Hungary to move any higher in the rankings, losing an identical number of points in exchange has led to Bosnia and Herzegovina falling one place to a new record low of 101st. Niue Island have moved up to 100th in their place.
Pool A concluded with Latvia beating Denmark 29-25 in a thrilling title decider in Jelgava.
Denmark led for the majority of the game but back-row Mikelis Jurevics scored his second try a minute from time to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
The narrow win was only worth three-hundredths of a point so didn’t improve Latvia’s rating enough for them to climb the rankings.
Bulgaria did not pick up any additional points for their 30-7 win over Serbia. But they sit level on points with Moldova at the top of the Pool C standings with nine points from their first two games.
Photo credit: Karen Dewulf
