Between this Saturday and March 15 last year’s champions Georgia, last year’s runners-up Spain, Romania, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany will battle it out to see who will be crowned this year’s overall winners in Leganés on Championship Finals.
Firstly, the teams will play three games apiece in the pool stage with Pool A pitting Georgia, Spain, Netherlands and Switzerland and Pool B being made up of Portugal, Romania, Belgium and Germany.
The top two from each pool will go through to contest the semi-finals with the other sides going forward to rankings matches.
All sides will play five games in six weeks, but, for now, all the focus is on week one and getting off to a good start.
The National Rugby Center in Amsterdam is the venue for the first game of the 2026 showpiece event with Netherlands hosting Spain in Pool A at 1pm local time (12pm UTC) on Saturday.
When the sides met in Madrid in last year’s pool phase, Spain won 53-24 while they are ranked 15 in the world and have qualified for Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia with Netherlands, who finished sixth last year, ranked 26th.
New Netherlands head coach Bryan Easson said: “Preparations have been good, however, very short.
“We only got together on Monday and with a new group and management team it has been time to get to know each other and how we work.
“With the team unfortunately not qualifying for next year’s World Cup there have been a few retirements, but this season is an excellent opportunity to build structures and strategies for the long term.
“It is also a good opportunity to improve our depth charts and experience. Our first two fixtures this season are against two very good, World Cup-qualified teams in Spain and Georgia so this the perfect opportunity to learn.”
Spain go into the away match of the back of their representative side Castilla y Leon Iberians winning the men’s Rugby Europe Super Cup for 2025/26 recently after they defeated Lusitanos from Portugal in the final at the same venue in Amsterdam.
The second match of week one sees Belgium and Portugal meeting at the Stade Charles Tondreau in Mons in Pool B at 8pm local time (7pm UTC) on Saturday evening.
They finished fifth and fourth respectively last year and currently sit 21st and 20th in the world rankings with Portugal having qualified for the World Cup with Belgium having just missed out at final qualifying.
Just over a year ago in the group phase, Portugal defeated Belgium 40-30 in Lisbon so we could be in for plenty of points in this one.
William Van Bost, the Belgium, captain, said: “Lots of new players are joining the squad, which is breathing new life into the group.
“We're starting the tournament against the best team in our group Portugal and they are a team that is improving every year with many high-quality players.
“It will be an interesting challenge for us and think it will be important to see new players in this tournament for us as we build for a bright future.”
“This weekend will be Maxime Jadot's last match, so it will be a very special game for us. He will be sorely missed by the team as he is the heart and soul of this national team, a player who is always smiling and who embodies all the sacrifices that most players make to represent their country.”
José Madeira, the Portugal player, said: “We are focused on each game.
“We will face a tough challenge in Mons this weekend against a Belgium side that was very competitive during final World Cup qualification tournament.
“We want to show our best version and impose our style throughout the entire tournament, clearly showcasing the DNA of Portuguese rugby.”
The first match of two on Sunday is Switzerland, who finished seventh 12 months ago, versus Georgia at the Stade Municipal in Yverdon-les-Bains at 1pm local time (12pm UTC).
In Tbilisi at the same time last year, Georgia really put the Swiss to the sword and won 110-0.
This Pool A clash pits 28 in the world against 13 and the Georgians are getting bready for the World Cup and Marco Bortolami is their interim head coach.
Swiss skipper Jules Porcher said: ““Preparations have been going well ahead of the competition.
“There’s a good dynamic in the squad and we feel ready for the challenge. Our main goal this season is to stay in the Championship, but we also want to show all the progress our team has made.
“Facing Georgia in the opening match is a huge challenge, they have been champions many times and set the standard inn this competition.
In front of our home crowd at the Stade Municipal in Yverdon we want to play an open, dynamic game, move the ball and put on a performance that’s enjoyable for those watching. It’s about showing our identity and taking another step forward as a team.”
Bortolami said of Georgia: “The preparations this week have been going very well. I think we are training well.
“We want to play the competition as strongly as possible and, obviously, our selection will reflects our intentions.
We have to respect our pool opponents - Switzerland, Netherlands and Spain - they’re all good teams. We’ll make sure we play every game to the best of our abilities because that’s going to be very important to build up momentum towards the end of the tournament.
“I’ve been very impressed by the players’ desire and their ability to learn a lot of information in such a short time. They like to work hard, they are smart players and they can learn very fast which is very encouraging.”
Last but not least, match four in week one of the competition is in Pool B and it sees Germany and Romania meet at Fritz-Grunebaum-Sportpark in Heidelberg on Sunday at 4pm local time (3pm UTC).
These sides finished eighth and third respectively last time around with them now being 35 and 22 in the world rankings and Romania being World Cup qualifiers.
Romania won 48-10 in the group phase in Bucharest last year and Germany head coach Mark Kuhlmann said leading into this clash: “For us, the only thing that matters this season is staying in the Championship. So, naturally, our focus is primarily on our direct competitors and that will probably be Switzerland down the line, but it's also about quickly finding our feet as a team after the loss of some experienced players.
“We're certainly not going into the pool matches as favourites and, to be honest, those aren't our crucial games, those will come later.
“But the home games at the beginning are particularly important for us. We want to perform well, and we'll give everything we've got to play an attractive game against Romania this weekend.
“We have already shown that we can play good rugby as a team, but we now have to bring that to the field consistently. That's the goal for this first game against Romania.”
Romania head coach David Gérard said: “We chose to go to France in the build-up for the event because Romania was full of snow and it was impossible to train properly.
“Going to Paris was a great experience for the group and we got to have a look at a number of players.
“It is a challenging pool for us and first up we are playing against a German team who we don't know very much about them because they have not played since last year’s event.
“It can be difficult to prepare for a game like this and we have new players and new staff members involved, but we have to target what we can control and control what we can do with the ball.
“To improve on last year’s third place finish will be tough, of course, because we'll play two games away in the pool stage, but we are ready for the challenge of trying to earn a home semi-final.”
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By Gary Heatly
