A short preview looking at the state of play ahead the REC in 2020.
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| Veterans like Kacharava are continuing post-RWC |
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Likely the trickiest obstacle for a third consecutive Grand Slam is an away trip to Spain, where on their last visit in 2017 Georgia trailed at half time, and for the past two years looked unconvincing in having to rely on scrummaging dominance to secure ugly home wins against opponents not at full strength.
In 2019 Spain found a habit of being on the right side of some tight results winning four REC matches for the first time and going on an unbeaten tour of Tier 2 South America. Now they approach tougher challenges travelling to Russia and Romania, and a home game vs Georgia fully believing they can win.
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| Spain won 8 out of 9 tests in 2019 |
Injury and unavailability is the norm with Spanish selection and they are not full strength without Charly Malie, Marco Pinto, Asier Usarraga, Mickael de Marco, Alvar Gimeno, Facundo Munilla (although they do have some interesting new additions on residency or heritage or from their U20s). Another successful REC campaign in spite of that would be a great achievement for Santiago Santos' team.
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Looking to stop Spain's winning run are Russia, who were the oldest squad at the recent RWC, but like Georgia most of their veteran players have not retired and been retained by Lyn Jones.
The Bears have been consistently mid-table finishing either 3rd or 4th every single year since 2010. This year playing both Spain and Romania at home, they have as good an opportunity as ever to change that, although it must be said they are a team that was old before and not getting much younger.
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| Kaliningrad is to host their first REC match |
One of the most interesting aspects of Russia's REC campaign this year will be them playing their first match in Kaliningrad against Portugal. The city superbly hosted last year's Rugby Europe U18 Championship and if successful could be a superior winter base for them with far better support than one man and a dog in Sochi (which is now hosting a game at the 47,659 Fisht Olympic Stadium).
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Under new leadership this year are Romania with Andy Robinson. He has a mixed head coaching record and comes into this job after three years out of the game following dismal failure at Bristol. However he has a reputation as a good technical coach (but poor selector or recruiter), and one of the best successes of his career was repairing a bare bones Edinburgh squad in 2007 to 2009. If committed it is possible he could be a good fit for this Romania job where "upskilling" players is more the challenge than selection.
Several of the 1986 generation is still going (and Andrei Radoi comes out of international retirement), but the Oaks seem to have abandoned betting on residency players, and selected more young players than they have for some time (although now they are coming out of Romania's worst ever U20s).
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| New Romania coach Andy Robinson |
For years the great rival for the REC with Georgia, their hopes of winning the Antim Cup away in their opening game in Tbilisi have never been slimmer, instead the focus for Romania this year is on redeveloping a squad and finding new players ready to play key roles in their RWC qualifying campaign starting next year.
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Below the top four are Belgium who come into this tournament on poor form. Their away form has been a total joke for a while, but even at home they have failed to match some of their past success. Losing badly at home to Romania last year, and more recently to a very average Hong Kong team.
Their strategy will as last year be to focus mainly on just one game against their most likely relegation rival Portugal. This will be first up, and unfortunately for Belgium also away from home, so to stay up they will have to do something they've never done before and win an REC game outside Brussels.
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Rejoining the REC for the first time in four years are the 2003 Grand Slam winners Portugal who after winning the RET with ease finally beat Germany in the playoff.
Os Lobos have played few higher ranked opponents over the past couple of years so this will be an interesting challenge for a team that almost resembles a University side in its youth (although has now added experienced Top 14 players Samuel Marques and Geoffrey Moise after long absences).
Beating Belgium to avoid bottom place is the priority, and although somewhat unlikely to finish in the top half, they do have some talent and carry an unknown quantity element that could surprise and give a hard test to at least one of the more experienced and higher ranked sides.
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Below the REC the RET also continues but the winner at this point seems very likely to be the Netherlands having already resoundingly beaten a very weak Germany team 37-7. The Dutch, barring a giant choke, will face probably the loser of Portugal vs Belgium in a summer playoff where they could return to the REC for the first time since they were relegated way back in 2002.
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Rugby Europe Championship schedule 2020:
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