2025 Rugby Europe Championship

2025 Rugby Europe Championship
2025 Rugby Europe Championship
Date	31 January – 16 March 2025
Countries	Belgium; Georgia; Germany; Netherlands; Portugal; Romania; Spain; Switzerland;
Tournament statistics
← 2024 (Previous)	(Next) 2026 →

The 2025 Rugby Europe Championship will be the ninth Rugby Europe Championship, the annual rugby union competition for the top European national teams outside the Six Nations Championship, and the 54th edition of the competition (including all its previous incarnations as the FIRA Tournament, Rugby Union European Cup, FIRA Nations Cup, FIRA Trophy, and European Nations Cup).^[1]

Eight teams took part in the 2024 championship. The championship was contested by Belgium, Georgia, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Poland.^[2] Georgia won the previous championship after defeating Portugal in the final, claiming their 16th title. Poland were relegated. After winning the 2023-24 Rugby Europe Trophy, Switzerland were promoted to the Championship for the 2025 season. This will be the first time in their history that they are in the top division.^{[citation needed]}

The serpentine system was applied to allocate each team to their respective groups.^[3] Each team played a total of five games (three round robin group matches to determine the team's path and two play-off matches).^[3] Seeding (for a group) and relegation are calculated over a two-year cycle, as is the promotion from the Trophy competition.^[3]

This year's edition of the Rugby Europe Championship doubles as the year of the 2027 Rugby World Cup qualifiers for the European region.^[4] The top two sides from each pool will qualify for the Rugby World Cup, with the final & bronze final acting as seeding matches to seed the team Europe 1–4. The Ranking Finals will then act as the play-off to determine Europe 5, who will advance to the final qualification tournament.

Participants

Nation	Stadium			Head coach	Captain
Nation	Home stadium	Capacity	Location	Head coach	Captain
Belgium	Stade Charles Tondreau	8,000	Mons	Laurent Dossat	Jens Torfs
Georgia	Avchala Stadium	3,500	Tbilisi	Richard Cockerill	Vasil Lobzhanidze
Germany	Auestadion	18,737	Kassel	Mark Kuhlmann	Jörn Schröder
Netherlands	NRCA Stadium	7,000	Amsterdam	Lyn Jones	Hugo Langelaan
Portugal	Estádio do Restelo Estádio Nacional	19,856 37,593	Lisbon	Simon Mannix	Tomás Appleton
Romania	Stadionul Arcul de Triumf Botoșani Municipal Stadium	8,207 7,782	Bucharest Botoșani	David Gérard	Mihai Macovei
Spain	Estadio José Zorrilla Estadio Nacional Complutense	27,618 12,400	Valladolid Madrid	Pablo Bouza	Jon Zabala
Switzerland	Stade Municipal Yverdon	6,600	Yverdon-les-Bains	Olivier Nier	Cyril Lin

World Cup qualification

Nation	Rank	Began play	Qualifying status
Belgium	27	1 February 2025
England	4	N/A	Qualified with Top 12 finish at 2023 World Cup
France	3	N/A	Qualified with Top 12 finish at 2023 World Cup
Georgia	12	1 February 2025
Germany	32	31 January 2025
Ireland	7	N/A	Qualified with Top 12 finish at 2023 World Cup
Italy	15	N/A	Qualified with Top 12 finish at 2023 World Cup
Netherlands	26	2 February 2025
Portugal	15	1 February 2025
Romania	20	31 January 2025
Scotland	8	N/A	Qualified with Top 12 finish at 2023 World Cup
Spain	18	2 February 2025
Switzerland	28	1 February 2025
Wales	5	N/A	Qualified with Top 12 finish at 2023 World Cup

Tables and fixtures

Pool A

Advances to the Grand Finals Semi-Finals
Advances to the Ranking Finals Semi-Finals

Pos.	Team	Games				Points			Tries			TBP	LBP	Table points
Pos.	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Diff	For	Against	Diff	TBP	LBP	Table points
1	Georgia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	Netherlands	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Spain	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Switzerland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Source - ^[5] Points were awarded to the teams as follows: Win – 4 points \| Draw – 2 points \| At least 3 more tries than opponent – 1 point \| Loss within 7 points – 1 point^[6]

Week 1

1 February 2025
16:00 GET (UTC+4)

Georgia	v	Switzerland

Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi
Referee: TBA

2 February 2025
12:45 CET (UTC+1)

Spain	v	Netherlands

Estadio Nacional Complutense, Madrid
Referee: TBA

Week 2

8 February 2025
15:00 GET (UTC+4)

Georgia	v	Netherlands

Avchala Stadium, Tbilisi
Referee: TBA

9 February 2025
14:00 CET (UTC+1)

Switzerland	v	Spain

Stade Municipal, Yverdon-les-Bains
Referee: TBA

Week 3

15 February 2025
13:00 CET (UTC+1)

Netherlands	v	Switzerland

NRCA Stadium, Amsterdam
Referee: TBA

16 February 2025
12:45 CET (UTC+1)

Spain	v	Georgia

Estadio Nacional Complutense, Madrid
Referee: TBA

Pool B

Advances to the Grand Finals Semi-Finals
Advances to the Ranking Finals Semi-Finals

Pos.	Team	Games				Points			Tries			TBP	LBP	Table points
Pos.	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Diff	For	Against	Diff	TBP	LBP	Table points
1	Belgium	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	Germany	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Portugal	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Romania	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Source - ^[5] Points were awarded to the teams as follows: Win – 4 points \| Draw – 2 points \| At least 3 more tries than opponent – 1 point \| Loss within 7 points – 1 point

Week 1

31 January 2025
19:00 EET (UTC+2)

Romania	v	Germany

Stadionul Arcul de Triumf, Bucharest
Referee: TBA

1 February 2025
19:30 WET (UTC+0)

Portugal	v	Belgium

Estádio do Restelo, Lisbon
Referee: TBA

Week 2

8 February 2025
20:00 CET (UTC+1)

Belgium	v	Romania

Stade Charles Tondreau, Mons
Referee: TBA

9 February 2025
17:15 WET (UTC+0)

Portugal	v	Germany

Estádio do Restelo, Lisbon
Referee: TBA

Week 3

15 February 2025
17:00 EET (UTC+2)

Romania	v	Portugal

Botoșani Municipal Stadium, Botoșani
Referee: TBA

16 February 2025
15:30 CET (UTC+1)

Germany	v	Belgium

Auestadion, Kassel
Referee: TBA

Grand Finals

	Semi-finals				Europe 1/2 playoff



	TBD

	TBD
					TBD

					TBD
	TBD

	TBD
					Europe 3/4 playoff



					TBD

					TBD

Semi-finals

1–2 March 2025
TBA

TBA	v	TBA

TBA
Referee: TBA

1–2 March 2025
TBA

TBA	v	TBA

TBA
Referee: TBA

Bronze Final

15-16 March
TBA

TBA	v	TBA

TBA
Referee: TBA

Final

15-16 March
TBA

TBA	v	TBA

TBA
Referee: TBA

Ranking Finals

	Semi-finals				Europe 5 playoff



	TBD

	TBD
					TBD

					TBD
	TBD

	TBD
					Seventh-place final



					TBD

					TBD

Semi-finals

1–2 March 2025
TBA

TBA	v	TBA

TBA
Referee: TBA

1–2 March 2025
TBA

TBA	v	TBA

TBA
Referee: TBA

Seventh-place final

15-16 March
TBA

TBA	v	TBA

TBA
Referee: TBA

Fifth-place final

15-16 March
TBA

TBA	v	TBA

TBA
Referee: TBA

Final standings

Pos.	Team	Points	2027 RWC qualification	WRNC Division 2 qualification
1	TBA	10	Qualified as Europe 1	Qualified as Europe 1
2	TBA	8	Qualified as Europe 2	Qualified as Europe 2
3	TBA	6	Qualified as Europe 3	Qualified as Europe 3
4	TBA	5	Qualified as Europe 4	Qualified as Europe 4
5	TBA	4	Advances to FQT as Europe 5
6	TBA	3
7	TBA	2
8	TBA	1

International broadcasters

Country	Broadcaster^[7]	Summary
Belgium	—	Rugby Europe (registration required)
Georgia	Rugby TV Imedi TV	Georgia games shown live via Rugby TV and Imedi TV. Also Georgia games are streamed and free on Rugby TV Facebook page
Germany	—	Rugby Europe (registration required)
Netherlands	Ziggo	Selected games live on Ziggo Sport
Poland	TVP Sport	Poland's home games shown live
Portugal	Sport TV	Portugal games shown live
Romania	—	Rugby Europe (registration required)
Spain	Teledeporte	Spain games shown live via Teledeporte
Switzerland	TBA
France	RugbyZone Archived 2022-02-01 at the Wayback Machine	All games available through streaming via RugbyZone Archived 2022-02-01 at the Wayback Machine
North America	FloRugby	All games available through streaming via FloSports
Rest of the World	Rugby Europe	All games available through streaming via Rugby Europe (registration required). Some games are streamed and free on Rugby Europe Youtube channel

References

^ "EPCR announces venues for 2025 and 2026 Finals Weekends | European Professional Club Rugby". www.epcrugby.com. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
^ "2024 World Rugby Participants". September 2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c "New Format for Rugby Europe Championship". Rugby Europe. 2023. Retrieved 12 February 2023.
^ "2025 Rugby Europe Championship Calendar Confirmed". 18 August 2024.
^ ^a ^b "2025 Rugby Europe Championship Standings".
^ "September 2024 Edition (2024-2025 season v1) RUGBY EUROPE INTERNATIONAL XV CHAMPIONSHIPS MEN & WOMEN 2024-2025 TOURNAMENT MANUAL" (PDF). Rugby Europe. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
^ "Where to Watch: Rugby Europe Championship 2022".

[1] "EPCR announces venues for 2025 and 2026 Finals Weekends | European Professional Club Rugby". www.epcrugby.com. Retrieved 7 June 2024.

[2] "2024 World Rugby Participants". September 2024.

[RugbyEuropeNewFormat-3] "New Format for Rugby Europe Championship". Rugby Europe. 2023. Retrieved 12 February 2023.

[4] "2025 Rugby Europe Championship Calendar Confirmed". 18 August 2024.

[Standings-5] "2025 Rugby Europe Championship Standings".

[6] "September 2024 Edition (2024-2025 season v1) RUGBY EUROPE INTERNATIONAL XV CHAMPIONSHIPS MEN & WOMEN 2024-2025 TOURNAMENT MANUAL" (PDF). Rugby Europe. Retrieved 8 October 2020.

[Broadcasters-7] "Where to Watch: Rugby Europe Championship 2022".

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v t e Rugby World Cup
Tournaments	Australia / New Zealand 1987 England / France / Ireland / Scotland / Wales 1991 South Africa 1995 Wales 1999 Australia 2003 France 2007 New Zealand 2011 England 2015 Japan 2019 France 2023 Australia 2027 United States 2031
Warm-up matches	2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023 2027 2031
Qualifying	1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023 2027 2031
Knockout stages	1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023 2027 2031
Finals	1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023 2027 2031
Squads	1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023 2027 2031
Statistics	1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023 2027 2031
Overview	History Hosts Qualification Theme song Trophy
Overall records	All-time table Hat-tricks Multiple winners Records and statistics Red cards Team appearances Try scorers
Notes: There was no qualification for the 1987 World Cup as places were given by invitation only.

Participants

World Cup qualification

Tables and fixtures

Pool A

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Pool B

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Grand Finals

Semi-finals

Bronze Final

Final

Ranking Finals

Semi-finals

Seventh-place final

Fifth-place final

Final standings

International broadcasters

See also

References