Portugal claimed a historic Rugby Europe Championship title win after they defeated Georgia 19-17 in an extraordinary final played in Spain on Sunday evening.
Georgia have dominated this event for many, many years, but a herculean effort - especially in defence - from Portugal secured them a first victory over their opponents since 2005 and with it an amazing trophy moment.
It is also Portugal’s first European competition win since 2004 - well before the Rugby Europe Championship began - and, unsurprisingly, the celebrations were wild.
Elsewhere on ‘Super Sunday’, Spain won the bronze final with Belgium finishing fifth and Netherlands finishing seventh after respective victories in rankings games on the day in the eight-team event. Germany have been relegated based on the results of the 2025 and 2026 seasons.In the Championship final at the Estadio Butarque in Leganés, Portugal missed an early penalty attempt and, in the 15th minute. it looked like Georgia were going to take the lead with a try, but a good tackle saw the ball spilled over the line.
Domingos Cabral, the Portugal stand-off, then missed a second penalty and it was still 0-0 after 22 minutes.
Georgia then lost key man Giorgi Akhaladze, the loosehead prop, to injury before back-row David Wallis was yellow carded for Portugal.
Almost straight away, Ilia Spanderashvili, the back-row, scored an unconverted try for Georgia and they were 5-0 up after 26 minutes.
Portugal then managed the remaining time of the sin bin well and conceded no more points. With Wallis back on they then got on the scoreboard when full-back
Manuel Vareiro kicked a penalty.
Just before half-time, Portugal loosehead prop Luis Lopes was yellow carded with Georgia pressuring their try line.
From the very next scrum Georgia scored a try as they very much got on the front foot, No.8 Tornike Jalagonia going over from he base with stand-off Tedo Abzhandadze converting to make it 12-3 at the break.
While Portugal were still down to 14 men, a second penalty from Vareiro made it 12-6.
With his team back to 15, the same man missed a long range penalty and it remained a six-point game after 54 minutes.
He then kicked an easier effort on the hour mark and, with Portugal now having their tails up, it was 12-9 with an exciting finale in prospect.
With 14 minutes to go, sub Beka Gorgadze scored an unconverted try to put Georgia eight points up at 17-9.
Portugal were not done yet though - far from it - and a fourth penalty from Vareiro made it a five-point game.
And then, with nine minutes to go, Georgia full-back Otari Metreveli was yellow carded.
It meant that Georgia was to be shorthanded for the rest of the game and Portugal took immediate advantage when a lovely pass from scrum-half Hugo Camacho put winger Vincent Pinto in for a try. Vareiro converted and suddenly they were 19-17 up with fingernails being chewed in the stands.
Georgia then threw everything at Portugal in the closing stages, but Portugal defended excellently well and got over the line.
“I don't have any words to describe this, it's an unreal feeling,” Portugal captain Jose Madeira, the second-row, said.
“It's been a really long time since our country had beaten Georgia and it was a big goal for us to try to win this final. Congratulations to Georgia because they put up a massive fight, but we managed to stick it and I'm incredibly proud pf the boys.
“This is a huge moment in the history of Portuguese rugby.”
Head coach Simon Mannix added: “It's been eight months of incredible work by my staff and my players to get to this point. We had to change everything and rebuild and if you want to judge a team just look at their defence - I thought our defence was pretty heroic in this game.
“They're a bunch of great lads and they deserve this victory. I thought Georgia played extremely well, we knew we were going to come under pressure, but we responded.
“We held our composure and we had clear heads and that's down to an incredible coaching group and incredible players.
“But this is a process and it's not about just one result in one tournament. There's a lot of young talent in Portuguese rugby and we've got to build on it.”
Meanwhile, Romania were 11-3 up at half-time in the bronze final before the Championship final at the same stadium, although the straight red card they suffered in the 18th minute eventually caught up with them as Spain came out on top 29-23.
Remember that Georgia, Portugal, Spain and Romania have all qualified for next year’s Rugby World Cup in Australia and this game started in wild fashion.
Spain had hooker Álvaro García Albó yellow carded after 13 minutes and a penalty from scrum-half Alin Conache put Romania 3-0 up.
The Romanians then had No.8 Nicolaas Immelman given a straight red card, but in the 29th minute it was them who scored next thanks to a try from winger Damian Bonaparte.
A drop goal from stand-off Daniel Plai then made it 11-0 to Romania before Spain eventually got themselves going via a penalty from stand-off Lucien Richardis and it was 11-3 at the interval.
Conache’s second penalty made it 14-3 to Romania soon after half-time before a converted try from Spain winger Alejandro Laforga made it 14-10.
A third penalty from Conache made it 17-10 to Romania in the 53rd minute, but, by 10 minutes later, Spain had turned things around to lead 24-17.
Tries came from back-row Alex Saleta and No.8 Raphaël Nieto in that spell with Richardis converting both.
Conache’s boot was keeping Romania just about in this one though and late on two penalties from him - sandwiched by an unconverted try from Spain winger Alejandro Laforga -finished things at 29-23 to the Spanish side after an enthralling contest to the delight of the home support. Saleta was named player of the match.
Earlier in the day, the fifth/sixth rankings final and the seventh/eight rankings final took place at the Estadio Nacional Complutense in Madrid.
In the fifth/sixth rankings final, Belgium defeated Switzerland 39-16.
A penalty by stand-off Jules Porcher put the Swiss 3-0 up before a penalty by Florian Remue and then a converted try from scrum-half Timothe Rifon put Belgium 10-3 up. By half-time it was 15-6, Belgium sub Flor Van Den Bussche scoring their second try with Porcher kicking another penalty for Switzerland.
Thomas Wallraf, the Belgium winger, was yellow carded on the stroke of the interval.
When Wallraf was off in the first 10 minutes of the second half, Switzerland ‘won’ the period 10-3.
Centre Antoine Duplan scored a try and Porcher kicked five points for them and Remue kicked a penalty for Belgium who led 18-16 as it went 15 versus 15 again.
Between the 58th minute and the end, Belgium then scored 21 unanswered points to make sure they would end up fifth and Switzerland sixth.
Switzerland were not helped by a couple of missed penalties and Belgium tries came from back-row Jean-Maurice Decubber, sub Remi De Wolf and winger
Miguel Fachada. Remue converted all three of them while their stand-off Guillem Fernandez Grau was named player of the match.
The seventh/eight rankings final that started the day was a one-sided affair as the Netherlands put Germany to the sword 76-7.
It was 47-0 and effectively ‘game over’ by half-time, the tries for Netherlands coming from hooker Taffy Kahembe (2), centre Tobias Nota, scrum-half Boris Hadinegoro (2) and No.8 Mart Van Der Veen (2) with stand-off Vikas Meijer converting six of them. Germany’s day was made even tougher than it had already been when, at 28-0 down, tighthead prop Cosmos Zymvragos was given a 20-minute red card.
