The 2011 European Under-18 Rugby Union Championship was the eighth annual international rugby union competition for Under 18 national

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

teams in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. The event was organised by rugby's European governing body, the

FIRA – Association of European Rugby Rugby Europe is the administrative body for rugby union in Europe. It was formed in 1999 to promote, develop, organise, and administer the game of rugby in Europe under the authority of World Rugby (the sport's global governing body). However, it ...

(FIRA-AER). The competition was contested by 28 men's junior national teams and will be held in April 2011. It was hosted by the French

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Armagnac Armagnac (, ) is a distinctive kind of brandy produced in the Armagnac region in Gascony, southwest France. It is distilled from wine usually made from a blend of grapes including Baco 22A, Colombard, Folle blanche and Ugni blanc, traditionally ...

and Bigorre. The tournament was won by the under-18 team of Ireland, who took out the title for the first time, beating England in the final.Ireland overcome England U18 in FIRA/AER final
''RFU'' website, published: 23 April 2011, accessed: 23 April 2011European Glory For Ireland Schools Team
''IRU'' website, published: 23 April 2011, accessed: 23 April 2011 For the first time, France did not reach the championship game and finished in fourth place only. The tournament's defending champion was

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, who had won five European championships and the last four in a row. The 2011 edition of the competition saw the introduction of an elite division, above division one, made up of four teams, France, England, Wales and Ireland. The divisions below remained unchanged. It marked the first time that all countries participating in the Six Nations Championship send a team to the European championship. It was sponsored by French company Justin Bridou and therefore officially called the ''2011 Justin Bridou European Under-18 Rugby Union Championship''.

Overview

History

The European Under-18 Rugby Union Championship was first held in 2004, in

Treviso Treviso ( , ; vec, Trevixo) is a city and '' comune'' in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 84,669 inhabitants (as of September 2017). Some 3,000 live within the Ven ...

, Italy. It replaced the previously held European Under-18 Emergent Nations Championship, which had first been held in 2000. The first championship in 2004 was won by France. The following two championships, held in

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...

, France, in 2005 and again in Treviso in 2006, were won by

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Alternating between France and Italy, the next four championships were held in Biarritz, Treviso again,

Toulon Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...

and once more in Treviso in 2010. All four were won by France, but of Europe's top rugby playing nations, England,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

did not take part in the 2010 edition.

Format

The 2011 edition saw the introduction of an Elite division, consisting of four teams, two of which, England and Wales, had not taken part in the 2010 competition or, in the case of Wales, never taken part in the European championship. Below the elite level, the championship was organised in First, Second and Third Divisions, with First being the highest and Third the lowest. Each division consisted of eight teams and each team played three competition games, with a quarter-final, semi-final and final/placing game. The quarter-finals were played according to a seeding list, with the winners moving on to the first to fourth place semi-finals while the losers would enter the fifth to eighth place semi-finals. The winner of the Elite division, Ireland, was crowned European champions while the fourth placed team was to be relegated to the First division. Similarly, the winner of the Second and Third divisions would move up a division for 2012 while the last placed teams would be relegated. To determine the four teams playing in the Elite Division, a qualifying tournament was held between the Six Nations U-18 sides in late February and early March, with the teams drawn into two groups of three teams each. France and England won their groups, with Wales and Ireland finishing second, qualifying all four teams for the Elite Division. Italy and Scotland finished third, placing them in the First Division. For Italy, this was still a bonus as it obtained the second seed for the division, behind Scotland. After an unsuccessful 2010 tournament, where the team had finished only fifth, it would have been entitled to only the fifth seed otherwise. Scotland made a return to the European championship for the first time since 2006.

Venues

The games of the 2011 championship were played at venues in

and Bigorre, two regions in southern France. The first round of games in all divisions except the elite one was played on 16 April 2011. The elite division played their first games in Auch the following day. The second round was played on 19 April while the finals for all divisions were held on 22 and 23 April, with Division two and three playing on the 22 and the Elite and First Division on the 23. The venues for the Elite Group where: * Auch *

Tarbes Tarbes (; Gascon: ''Tarba'') is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region of southwestern France. It is the capital of Bigorre and of the Hautes-Pyrénées. It has been a commune since 1790. It was known as ''Turba ...

The venues for the first round were: * Condom *

Eauze Eauze (; Gascon: ''Eusa'') is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France. History Located in the heart of south-west France, 130 kilometers from the Spanish border, Eauze is originally a proto-Basque city that became Roman. It wa ...

Fleurance Fleurance (; oc, Florença) is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and terr ...

* Lombez * Magnoac * Vic-en-Bigorre The venues for the second round were: * Gimont *

Lourdes Lourdes (, also , ; oc, Lorda ) is a market town situated in the Pyrenees. It is part of the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. Prior to the mid-19th century, the town was best known for the Châ ...

Masseube Masseube (; ''Masseuva'' in Gascon) is a commune in the Gers department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. Geography History Masseube ("The farmhouse of the forest") was originally the name of a farm belonging to Escaladieu Ab ...

Miélan Miélan (; oc-gsc, Mielan) is a Communes of France, commune in the Gers Departments of France, department in southwestern France. The choral conductor Aurore Tillac was born in Miélan in 1980. Geography Population See also * Communes of th ...

Ossun Ossun (; oc, Aussun) is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in south-western France. Ossun station has rail connections to Bayonne, Bordeaux, Tarbes and Pau. Population See also *Communes of the Hautes-Pyrénées department ...

Vic-Fezensac Vic-Fezensac (; Gascon: ''Vic en Fesensac''; Occitan: ''Vic de Fesensac'') is a commune in the Gers department in the Occitanie region of Southwestern France. In 2017, it had a population of 3,474. Geography Localisation Vic-Fezensa ...

The venues for the third round were: * Bagnères * Capvern * L'Isle-Jourdain * Laloubère *

Lannemezan Lannemezan (; Gascon Occitan ''Lanamesa'', "heath of the middle") is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department and the Occitanie region in south-western France. The inhabitants are called Lannemezanais. Lannemezan is the largest city ...

Louey Louey (; oc, Luei) is a Communes of France, commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées Departments of France, department in south-western France. Notable people *Jacques Duclos (1896–1975), communist politician *Jean Duclos (1895–1957), French politic ...

* Sémléac

D Division

The D division forms the fourth level, below the Third division, of European Under-18 rugby. In 2011, only three teams compete at this level, at a separate tournament. It consists of the teams of Israel, Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina. The tournament was held independently of the other divisions on 14 April at

Sinj Sinj (; it, Signo; german: Zein) is a town in the continental part of Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia. The town itself has a population of 11,478 and the population of the administrative municipality, which includes surrounding villages, is 24, ...

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

and won by the home nation.

Teams and standings

The participating teams and their divisions are in order of their ranking after the tournament:

Games

The scheduled games:

Elite Division

The games of the elite division:

First Division

The games of the first division:

Championship

Relegation

Second Division

The games of the second division:

Championship

Relegation

Third Division

The games of the third division:

Championship

Relegation

European Championship final

The European Championship final was held on 23 April at 18:30 at Tarbes and was broadcast live on

Eurosport 2 Eurosport 2 is a French sports television network. It is a sister channel to Eurosport 1, which is a division of the Eurosport Network and a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. Several different versions of the channel exist across Europe, where te ...

.U18 – The final will be Ireland Vs England
FIRA-AER website, accessed: 18 April 2011 The final was played in wet conditions and a well organised Ireland side went up 11-3 by half time. England's head coach, John Fletcher, conceded that it was a well-deserved Irish victory but that the game was an important lesson to learn and would help his players in their future development. For Ireland, which was, for the first time, represented by a schools team rather than a Club XV, captain Luke McGrath was the most influential figure on the field, scoring twelve points.

References

External links

FIRA-AER official website
*
2010 European Under-18 Rugby Union Championship official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Under-18 2011

2010–11 in European rugby union 2010–11 in French rugby union International rugby union competitions hosted by France