The 2023 Rugby Europe Championship was the seventh

Rugby Europe Championship The Rugby Europe International Championships is the European Championship for tier 2 and tier 3 rugby union nations. The tournament is split into 5 levels, each with 5 or 6 teams. Its highest level is now called the Rugby Europe Championship an ...

, the annual

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 its m ...

for the top European national teams outside the

Six Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) is an annual international men's rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The current champions ar ...

, and the 53rd 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). Eight teams took part in the 2023 Championship, up from six in previous tournaments, due to a reorganisation of the various flights of European international competition. The Championship was contested by

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

and

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, who competed in the 2022 Championship were relegated as a result of suspension due to their country's

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

. The remaining five teams (Georgia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, and Spain) were joined by the top three teams from the

2021–22 Rugby Europe Trophy The 2021–22 Rugby Europe Trophy is the fifth season of the second premier rugby union competition for European national teams outside the Six Nations Championship which itself is a part of the Rugby Europe International Championships. The confirm ...

, which Belgium won. Georgia entered the tournament as defending champions. They topped the table in the 2022 tournament, claiming their 14th title. The

serpentine system The serpentine system (also called snake seeding) is a method employed in the organization of a competition to define the seeded teams and arrange them in pools. The ''n'' ranked teams that will be involved in the tournament are distributed in ''m ...

was applied to allocate each team to their respective groups. Each team played a total of five games (three

round robin Round-robin may refer to: Computing * Round-robin DNS, a technique for dealing with redundant Internet Protocol service hosts * Round-robin networks, communications networks made up of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology * Round-robin schedu ...

group matches to determine the team's path and two play-off matches). Seeding (for a group) and relegation are calculated over a two-year cycle, as is the promotion from the Trophy competition.

Participants

Tables and Fixtures

Group A

Week 1

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Week 2

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Week 3

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Group B

Week 1

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Week 2

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Week 3

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Ranking finals

Semi-finals

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Seventh-place final

Fifth-place final

Grand finals

Semi-finals

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Bronze Final

Cup Final

Final standings

Team of the Tournament

On 6 April 2023 Rugby Europe published its Team of the Tournament
Nuno Sousa Guedes was voted the player of the tournament by the fans.

International broadcasters

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Championship Rugby Europe Championship 2022–23 Rugby Europe International Championships 2023 rugby union tournaments for national teams 2022–23 in European rugby union 2023 in Belgian sport 2023 in Dutch sport 2023 in German sport 2023 in Polish sport 2023 in Portuguese sport 2022–23 in Romanian rugby union 2022–23 in Spanish rugby union

Participants

Tables and Fixtures

Group A

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Group B

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Ranking finals

Semi-finals

Seventh-place final

Fifth-place final

Grand finals

Semi-finals

Bronze Final

Cup Final

Final standings

Team of the Tournament

International broadcasters

See also

References