Poland’s great form in last year’s Rugby Europe Trophy earned them a place in the expanded Championship for 2023.
And they will be playing in the first match of the whole event on Saturday when they travel to take on Romania in Bucharest.
These two sides are in Pool B with Portugal and Belgium and skipper Piotr Zeszutek said: “I’m happy and proud to be captain of Poland and I want to be a good leader.
“I want to show people, along with my team mates, that we deserve to be playing at this level and that last year was no accident.
“We are improving all the time and by the national team improving rugby in Poland in general is improving and I am happy with that.
“Last year in the Trophy it was tough, but we won four games out of five, only losing to Belgium. All of the wins helped our confidence, but the most important one was the home win over Germany in Gdynia.
“It showed us that we can do a lot as a team if we keep working hard and I know that all of the players in the squad want to keep putting that hard work in.”
The back-row man will certainly be key for his country in this competition while Poland have been coached since early last year by Welshman Christian Hitt.
Poland will be underdogs this coming weekend because Romania are sitting at 20 in the world and are off to a World Cup later in the year.
On the other hand, Poland are ranked 30, but Zeszutek is looking forward to the test on the road and then is excited about the two home games in Gdynia that will come after that versus Portugal and Belgium.
“Hopefully the two home matches will see us well supported as we enjoy playing in front of our own fans,” the captain explained.
“It is also a good chance to promote rugby in our country to more people so hopefully the media help us to get the word out.”
Romania v Poland – 4th February, 1pm CET (2pm Local) Live on Rugby Europe TV and Florugby (North America).
