All roads lead to the magnificent Stade Jean Bouin in Paris on Sunday with four brilliant matches lines up as the men’s Rugby Europe Championship for 2024 comes to an end.
First up at 12pm local time (11am UTC), Poland and Belgium meet in the 7th place final.
Poland have had a tough time in the competition with three Pool B defeats followed by a 54-7 rankings semi-final loss to Netherlands.
They are 34th in the current world rankings and Belgium 29th.
This campaign all started so well for Belgium with an excellent Pool B win over Portugal, but a loss to Romania meant they missed out on the Cup semi-finals.
Then, in their rankings semi-final, they were defeated 21-11 by Germany.
They will want to end on a high and will start favourites here given they beat Poland 31-10 during the group stage.
Poland head coach Chris Hitt said: “We are looking forward to the last game and we are treating this as our own ‘Cup final’ and I know Belgium will be doing the same.
“We will give it everything we have got.”
In the 5th place final at 2.45pm local time (1.45pm UTC), Netherlands take on Germany.
As mentioned, they both won rankings semi-finals to get here, so they will be feeling good.
When they met in Pool A action in February, Netherlands won 39-13 and they are 27th in the world with Germany 30th.
Mark Kuhlmann, the Germany head coach, said: “It's the second ‘final’ for us after the important one [the semi] against Belgium.
“We certainly didn't put in a good performance against the Netherlands in the group stage and the team will want to do better now. We've certainly taken a few things from the first game, but it's also clear that we'll need a very good day if we want to win this.”
Romania and Spain then meet in the Bronze final at 6.15pm local time (5.15pm UTC).
This is a repeat of the bronze medal clash from 2023 and, if there is a repeat, we could be in for a treat because it was a very close game with Romania winning 31-25.
This year, Romania finished second in Pool B and then lost their Cup semi-final 43-5 to Georgia.
They are ranked 20 in the world with Spain at 19th and the latter finished second in Pool A before losing their Cup semi-final 33-30 to Portugal.
Romania head coach David Gerard said: “We knew this tournament would be tough and it was. The players showed a lot of courage and they deserve to end with a victory. It will be tough against Spain, but we will give our best.”
Spain captain Mario Pichardie said: “The team is up for this game and looking forward to it.
“We want to build on things from our last couple of games and we know how important a result is here for the final standings and also in the overall picture looking forward.”
Finally, Georgia play Portugal in the Cup final at 9pm local time (8pm UTC).
Georgia have dominated this event in recent years and they will be looking to come out on top once again while Portugal have bounced back strongly from their shock Pool B defeat to Belgium to make this final.
In the 2023 Cup final Georgia won against the same opponents 38-11 while they are 13 in the world with Portugal 15.
João Mirra, a member of the Portugal coaching team, said: “The stumble in Belgium, it's true it was bad, but it was how we approached that stumble, the fact that we didn't see it as a setback, but rather as a learning curve, has brought us to this point.”
As well as the final positions for this year’s event, results from all four matches will also impact the final standings from the 2023 and 2024 cycle, so there is loads to play for.
Tickets are still available online and will be available to purchase on the gate on the day.
Poland v Belgium
Germany: Joyn and Ran.de
Rest of the World: Rugby Europe TV
Netherlands v Germany
Netherlands: Ziggo
Germany: Pro Sieben MAXX
Rest of the World: Rugby Europe TV
Romania v Spain
Spain: Movistar +
Germany: Joyn and Ran.de
France: Twitch RMC Sport
Rest of the World: Rugby Europe TV
Georgia v Portugal
Georgia: Imedi & Rugby TV
Portugal: SportTV
Germany: Joyn and Ran.de
France: Twitch RMC Sport
Rest of the World: Rugby Europe TV and Rugby Pass TV
