Spanish side Castilla y Leon Iberians are the Rugby Europe Super Cup champions for 2025/26 after they defeated Lusitanos from Portugal in the final on Saturday.
The match was played at the at the National Rugby Center in Amsterdam in the Netherlands and they showed their class to come out on top 42-17.
Iberians were 10-3 up - tries coming from scrum-half Tani Bay and No.8 Vicente Boronat versus a penalty by Lusitanos’ stand-off Domingos Cabral – by the time Inaki Mateu, the centre, kicked a penalty on the half hour mark.
A few minutes later they scored a quite brilliant team try, the move being started by Bay and finished by second-row Pablo Guirao, and it was 18-3.
That was the way it stayed until half-time, but Lusitanos had a man in the sin bin.
In the opening minutes of the second half Iberians made their man advantage count when sub John Wessel Bell scored a five-pointer to stretch the lead to 20 points.
Things were getting worse for Lusitanos and they lost a second man to the sin bin.
They were soon back to 14, but when full-back Beltran Ortega scored his eighth try of the Super Cup campaign it was 28-3.
It was one way traffic at this stage and Lusitanos then suffered a third yellow card of the game in the 53rd minute and Delta were soon after awarded a seven-point penalty try. Lusitanos were then handed a fourth yellow card of the game to rub salt into the wounds.
In the 58th minute it became 14 versus 13 when Iberians had a man yellow carded themselves and Lusitanos scored a try via replacement Afonso Tapadinhas. Cabral converted and it was 35-10.
While it was still 14 against 13, the Iberians stretched their lead to 42-10 when winger Martiniano Cian scored his fourth try of the campaign and stand-off
Gonzalo Vinuesa converted.
Lusitanos scored the final points of an eventful game late on when Tapadinhas rumbled over for his second try and Cabral converted, but this was Iberians day as they won 42-17.
After the game Iberians captain Matthew Foulds, the back-rower, said: “We wanted to take the game to our opponents up front and I think we did that, we had a dominant maul and scrum and that gave us the platform to go on and win.”
Earlier in the day, Delta delighted the home supporters by defeating Brussels Devils from Belgium 36-31 in the bronze final to finish in third place.
The Devils took the lead in this one after five minutes when centre Guillem Fernandez Grau kicked a penalty.
Delta hit back with a try from back-row Tom Boggemann converted by winger Bjorn Dolman before the Delta retook the lead with a try of their own from scrum-half Benjamin Ruddick converted by Fernandez Grau.
Things got even better for the Belgian side when they scored their second try through back-row Jacques Genin which was converted by Fernandez Grau and they were 18-7 up after 20 minutes.
Daan Van Der Avoird, the winger, then scored a five-pointer for Delta to make it 17-12, but the Devils’ third converted try by tighthead prop Samuel Opsomer made it 24-12.
Delta reduced the arrears to 24-19 at half-time when second-row Martijn Van Dalen’s try, converted by Dolman, meant it really was ‘game on’ after a breathless first half.
That was even more so the case three minutes into the second half when a try from centre Tom Eelman, converted by Dolman, put Delta 26-24 up in this end-to-end clash.
A penalty from Dolman made it 29-24 after 47 minutes and they looked on course to win until, in the 70th minute, a try from Devils’ sub Jonas Van Den Bossche levelled things up. Fernandez Grau held his nerve with the conversion and the Belgian side were 31-29 ahead going into the closing changes.
Willed on by the home fans, Delta knew one more try would win the game and it came for them in the 74th minute when Dolman made up for a missed penalty just before by scoring a try. The same man converted and then they held on to win 36-31 after a cracking contest.
Rugby Europe would like to thank Rugby Netherlands for hosting a great day of rugby.
By Gary Heatly
Photos: Erik den Burger (Rugby-Shots.NL)
