U18 and U20 Championships to take place in Prague

This season’s competitions will both be held in Prague, Czechia and will run from the 11th 19th of November, with all 24 matches being played at the National Rugby Stadium Markéta in Prague.

The formats of the competitions will both be the same as previous years, with three rounds of fixtures each in a straight knockout to decide the U20 and U18 European Champions for 2023, this will be the first time that the two competitions will be held at the same location.

The competitions will also feature Switzerland for the first time since 2017 in the U20 Championship and 2018 in the U18 Trophy.

U20 Competition

This year’s competition will feature eight European nations, including invitational team Ligue Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (Ligue AURA) who will feature a selection of Regional U19 players from France, after Spain’s success in the World Rugby U20 Trophy where they have consequently qualified for the World Rugby U20 Championship.

Ligue Aura will be seeded 1st and will face Switzerland who obtained their ticket after defeating Bulgaria in qualification play-off match.

The winner of the tournament will participate in the next edition of WR U20 Trophy in 2024 (Date and location to be confirmed).

The dates for the U20 fixtures are as follows on Sunday 12th November:

Quarter Finals (All times CET)

11am: Belgium v Romania
1:30pm: Portugal v Poland
4pm: Ligue AURA v Switzerland
6:30pm: Netherlands v Czechia

The semi-finals will take place on the 15th of November, before the finals on the 19th of November.

U18 Competition

The first day of competition will take place on Saturday 11th of November.

After their fourth consecutive European title, which they retained last year in Rustavi , the young Georgian Lelos will be eager to retain their crown in Prague – starting their journey against the Swiss team who qualified after their victory against Poland 27-15.

Quarter Finals (All times are CET)