REC Finals venues announced

Rugby Europe has confirmed the location of the finals of the coming edition of the men’s Rugby Europe Championship 2023 (REC).

The Championship will feature an expanded version of the competition this season with Belgium, Germany and Poland all taking the step up to the top table of Rugby Europe’s XV men’s competition, joining Georgia, Portugal, Romania, Spain and the Netherlands . This will be the first year of an exciting new format to ensure the competition grows its excitement throughout the action from the first game to the last.

The eight Nations will be split into two pools for the round-robin phase which takes place across three weekends, during February 2023.

At the end of the pool-phase, the top four teams will play the Championship semi-finals on March 4-5 at the ground of the highest ranked teams, while the bottom four teams will compete for the final rankings.

For the first time ever, a “Grand Finals” Sunday will see every team compete on March 19^th to crown the REC2023 Champions and battle for all the other positions.

The Championship Gold and Bronze finals will take place in Badajoz, Spain, with the games played at Estadio Nuevo Vivero, where Rugby Europe and the Federacion Espanola de Rugby will host the grand final event.

The teams ranked in positions 5^th to 8^th will contest another set of finals, which will be hosted in Amsterdam at the National Center of Rugby, the home of Rugby Netherlands.

The kick-off times will be :

• 11.30 am UTC: 7th place final
• 2.00 pm UTC: 5th place final
• 4.15 pm UTC: Bronze Final
• 7.00 pm UTC: Championship Final

The competition features three teams, Georgia, Romania and Portugal, who have qualified for Rugby World Cup France 2023 and will provide an excellent platform to showcase their skills.

The first round of matches in Pool A will see Germany travel to Tbilisi to face the current champions Georgia, while Spain welcome the Netherlands to Madrid.

In Pool B, Romania and newcomers Poland will have the honour of opening the tournament in the picturesque Arcul de Triumf in Bucharest, before Belgium face a stiff test for their new coaching team first up as their tournament opens up away in Lisbon against Portugal.

All the confirmed fixtures and kick off times for the pool rounds can be found on www.rugbyeurope.eu  

Florent Marty, Rugby Europe CEO, said: “We are really excited by the launch of the new Rugby Europe Championship structure. Showcasing more teams at that level and concluding with a Final day where all positions will be at stake will help enhance the competition.

It represents a huge opportunity for us to continue to grow the game across the continent and expand the interest in the various markets. The new teams that join the Championship this year will have the chance to test themselves on the pitch against some of the best in Europe.

These 20 games played in eight countries represent an attractive story-telling opportunity for our broadcast partners and a great opportunity for Rugby Europe and participating unions’ partners. We hope the players will enjoy the action on the pitch and rugby fans will enjoy the spectacle, either in the stadium or behind the screen.”

All games will be Live-streamed on the platform – www.rugbyeurope.tv

Broadcast partners will include Sportall (France), Imedi and Rugby TV (Georgia), TVP (Poland), Sport TV (Portugal), Teledeporte (Spain), Ziggo (The Netherlands) and FloRugby (North America).