Georgia, Spain and Portugal made sure of semi-final spots in the Rugby Europe Championship with bonus point pool stage victories at the weekend.
And Romania gave their hopes of making the last four a boost by securing a win of their own to add to the losing bonus point they got in round one.
The Paul Greifzu Stadium in Dessau was the venue for the first game of the round two weekend on Saturday when Germany hosted Portugal in Pool B.
Both sides went into this one off the back of opening wins, but it was Portugal who were the dominant force here and won 68-12.
Both sides went into this one off the back of opening wins, but it was Portugal who were the dominant force here and won 68-12.
The match was all but decided by half-time with Portugal 33-0 up.
Centre Rodrigo Marta bagged two tries in that period with wingers Manuel Cardoso Pinto and Vincent Pinto also crossing as well as full-back Manuel Vareiro. Stand-off Domingos Cabral converted four of them.
Things got worse for Germany after half-time when Vareiro scored a converted try and then home No.8 Luis Ball was yellow carded.
When he was off Porugal’s seventh try came via centre Guilherme Vasconcelos before the 14-men of Germany got on the scoreboard through a try by Andrew Reintges converted by fellow sub Bader-Werner Pretorius.
With Ball back, his fellow back-row Shawn Ingle was then sin-binned and, in the final 17 minutes, Portugal added further tries through back-row Joao Granate and replacements Cody Thomas and Simao Bento. Cabral was named player of the match after kicking nine conversions.
Germany scored a late consolation try through sub Aidan Dixon.
Portugal are top of the pool on 10 points with Germany third on four points.
Spain and Switzerland were due to meet in Pool A at the Estadio Nueva Balastera in Palencia on Saturday evening, but was moved to the Estadio Pepe Rojo in Valladolid earlier in the day with the original pitch unplayable.
And Spain kept up their impressive start to this campaign by winning 53-14.
Switzerland did take the lead here when Spain loosehead prop Bernardo Vázquez Di Pietro was in the sin bin, back-row Nicolas Mousties scoring a try which was converted by stand-off Willy Gonnet.
Fourteen-man Spain replied with a converted try of their own from scrum-half Tani Bay, but Switzerland were giving as good as they got and, with the game back to 15 versus 15, they went 14-7 up thanks to a converted try from second-row Martin Even in the 25th minute.
Spain responded and led 21-14 at half-time thanks to tries two and three coming from winger Alejandro Castro and centre Oriol Garcia with stand-off Bautista Guemes converting both.
The second half belonged to Spain who ran in 32 points to none.
Switzerland were not helped by a yellow card and Spain hit their straps with six tries being added with No.8 Alex Saleta bagging two of them and Bay being named player of the match.
Spain are second in the pool on 10 points with Switzerland fourth on zero points.
Onto Sunday and, in game one that day, Netherlands took on Georgia at the National Rugby Center in Amsterdam.
This was in Pool A and the visitors, despite an early yellow card, led 28-5 at the interval and went on to win 61-12 with stand-off Luka Matkava, who scored 26 points, the player of the match.
The Georgia tries came from scrum-half Gela Aprasidze (2), back-row Luka Ivanishvili, Matkava (2), subs Mamik Mstoian and Bachuki Tchumbadze and centre Georges Shvelidze.
Netherlands scored tries through full-back Sem Verplancke and winger Jules Swier with Vikas Meijer converting one.
Georgia are top of the pool on 10 points with Netherlands third on zero points.
The final game of the weekend was the Pool B clash between Romania and Belgium at the Emil Alexandrescu Stadium in Iași.
The first half was very tight and the sides were tied at 6-6 at the break, scrum-half Alin Conache kicking two penalties for the hosts to two from centre Florian Remue for Belgium.
Belgium were hit with a yellow card early in the second period, but rode that 10 minutes out and, heading towards the hour mark, it was still level.
Romania then found another gear with their pack getting the upper hand and tries from back-row Kemal Altinok and No.8 Eduard Cioroaba along with seven points from the boot of Conache got them over the line. Romania replacement tighthead prop Gheorghe Gajion, who came on early in the second half, was named player of the match.
Romania are second in the pool on five points with Belgium fourth on zero points.
The third and final round of pool action takes place this coming weekend when the winners of both sections will be decided along with who joins Portugal in the semi-finals from Pool B and the rankings that all teams will take forward to the next stage.
Another brilliant Saturday and Sunday beckons…
By Gary Heatly
