Rugby Europe International Championships 2019-2020

[Canalina Profile]

But meanwhile the november REC dates re-disappeared from RE website

https://www.rugbyeurope.eu/competitions ... eic-men-xv

[Vova12 Profile]

If Romania beats Belgium and Belgium gets a bonus point, then Russia will play against Netherlands.

Romania 9
Belgium 8
Russia 8

Personal meeting - victory for Belgium.

[Chester-Donnelly Profile]

If Romania beats Belgium and Belgium gets a bonus point, then Russia will play against Netherlands.

Romania 9
Belgium 8
Russia 8.

This is the most likely outcome in my opinion.

[Armchair Fan Profile]

A bonus point by Belgium away from home with players that haven't played a game for months and a new head coach is the most likely outcome? Really?

Let's remember last results:
- Belgium 17 - 43 Romania
- Romania 62 - 12 Belgium
- Belgium 17 - 33 Romania
- Romania 29 - 10 Belgium
- Belgium 14 - 32 Romania

[Chester-Donnelly Profile]

A bonus point by Belgium away from home with players that haven't played a game for months and a new head coach is the most likely outcome? Really?

Let's remember last results:
- Belgium 17 - 43 Romania
- Romania 62 - 12 Belgium
- Belgium 17 - 33 Romania
- Romania 29 - 10 Belgium
- Belgium 14 - 32 Romania

The Belgian team is mostly French professionals. They will have been back playing for 2 months.

[Armchair Fan Profile]

"Professionals". Many are in Fédérale, which is a huge mess right now, with dozens of positive tests because you simply cannot guarantee bubbles in semipro leagues.

I'm not optimistic, neither for REC games being played nor the competitiveness of teams.

[Canalina Profile]

I think too that Romania is favored and that the most probable scenario is a play-off between Belgium and Ned.

Romanian Superliga is playing the play-off just in these weeks and I suppose the most of the Romanian national team is playing in the national championship.
This surprises me a bit: Romanian economy should be relatively weak, at least as far as I know, and their championship seems not attracting a lot of fans, according to the images I've seen in the past years, but despite all that they've several austral players in the championship (Saf, Nze, Fij, Ton) and, if I'm not wrong, most of the national team players are in SuperLiga, while most of the Georgian national team players went abroad

[Chester-Donnelly Profile]

Canalina you're not wrong. The current squad shown on Wikipedia is made up of:
Timisoara 12
Steaua. 10
Baia Mare. 5
Other Superliga teams 4
France 2

In my opinion the advantage Romania has is having most of its players concentrated in 3 domestic teams, so there is plenty of opportunity to train together.

The downside is these teams mostly play eachother, and the other 3 Superliga teams which are quite weak opposition. They don't often play stronger teams. I don't see how these players are being challenged until it comes to Internationals. Georgian players and Belgian players play in competitive leagues and they are under constant pressure to perform. I think it's quite important to get the Kontinental Rugby Liga up and running next year, or to reform the Bucuresti Wolves and play in the European Challenge Cup. These players need to be able to play at a higher standard when required.

[Canalina Profile]

RE publicly confirmed the REC last round dates, the ones already posted by Flidta Risxva

https://www.rugbyeurope.eu/dates-confir ... hampionshi

https://www.facebook.com/rugbyeurope/

Also the dates of the two last Women Championship games appeared in the website (24 and 31 october, as we already knew), while the dates of the last three men's Trophy games and the destiny of the men's and women's 7s championship are still missing

[Canalina Profile]

Rugby Europe took the last decisions about the season 2019/20

Ukraine v Germany and Germany v Lithuania are called off and recorded with the 0-0 result
Poland v Ukraine, the last remaining RET match, is confirmed on October 10
https://www.rugbyeurope.eu/competitions ... eic-men-xv

According to rugger.info, which mentions an official communication, the Euro 7s are cancelled
https://rugger.info/news/35884

[Grzegorz B. Profile Website]

However, there is a date for the game Poland-Lithuania for the next season: 28.11. And Germany-Poland perhaps 31.10, but this one is not sure.

After changes of host designation in RET 2020/2021 - two fixtures in autumn (very likely, but not 100% sure yet, of course):
Ukraine - Poland 31.10, Lviv
Poland - Switzerland 28.11, Siedlce

[Bogdan_DC Profile]

Canalina you're not wrong. The current squad shown on Wikipedia is made up of:
Timisoara 12
Steaua. 10
Baia Mare. 5
Other Superliga teams 4
France 2

In my opinion the advantage Romania has is having most of its players concentrated in 3 domestic teams, so there is plenty of opportunity to train together.

The downside is these teams mostly play eachother, and the other 3 Superliga teams which are quite weak opposition. They don't often play stronger teams. I don't see how these players are being challenged until it comes to Internationals. Georgian players and Belgian players play in competitive leagues and they are under constant pressure to perform. I think it's quite important to get the Kontinental Rugby Liga up and running next year, or to reform the Bucuresti Wolves and play in the European Challenge Cup. These players need to be able to play at a higher standard when required.

Dont take your info from Wikipedia, we have much more players abroad.

[Chester-Donnelly Profile]

Canalina you're not wrong. The current squad shown on Wikipedia is made up of:
Timisoara 12
Steaua. 10
Baia Mare. 5
Other Superliga teams 4
France 2

In my opinion the advantage Romania has is having most of its players concentrated in 3 domestic teams, so there is plenty of opportunity to train together.

The downside is these teams mostly play eachother, and the other 3 Superliga teams which are quite weak opposition. They don't often play stronger teams. I don't see how these players are being challenged until it comes to Internationals. Georgian players and Belgian players play in competitive leagues and they are under constant pressure to perform. I think it's quite important to get the Kontinental Rugby Liga up and running next year, or to reform the Bucuresti Wolves and play in the European Challenge Cup. These players need to be able to play at a higher standard when required.

Dont take your info from Wikipedia, we have much more players abroad.

Who are the Romanian players abroad, what position do they play, and what clubs do they play for, please?

[Bogdan_DC Profile]

Canalina you're not wrong. The current squad shown on Wikipedia is made up of:
Timisoara 12
Steaua. 10
Baia Mare. 5
Other Superliga teams 4
France 2

In my opinion the advantage Romania has is having most of its players concentrated in 3 domestic teams, so there is plenty of opportunity to train together.

The downside is these teams mostly play eachother, and the other 3 Superliga teams which are quite weak opposition. They don't often play stronger teams. I don't see how these players are being challenged until it comes to Internationals. Georgian players and Belgian players play in competitive leagues and they are under constant pressure to perform. I think it's quite important to get the Kontinental Rugby Liga up and running next year, or to reform the Bucuresti Wolves and play in the European Challenge Cup. These players need to be able to play at a higher standard when required.

Dont take your info from Wikipedia, we have much more players abroad.

Who are the Romanian players abroad, what position do they play, and what clubs do they play for, please?

Im not your personal Google but: Ursachex2, Badiu, Macovei, Gorcioaia, Antonescu, Motoc, Iftimciuc, Gordas,Ilisescu, Ciorascu, Nistor, Chirica, Onutu,Tomascu, Burtila (France- from Top14 to F1)+ espoirs players like Gontineac,Staicu,Dinu etc + Maliepo in MLR+ Tarus at Zebre and probably many more.

[Canalina Profile]

Sweden national team resumes the training activity with four or five daily/bi-daily stages in september, october and november.
They have a possible match (status and opponent unknown) in the 14/15 november weekend.
And, yes, they have two georgians in the list: every RE nation must have, by law, at least a georgian player in the national team

https://iof3.idrottonline.se/globalasse ... 919-20.jpg

[Grzegorz B. Profile Website]

2020/2021 RET Switzerland - Lithuania: 14 november - https://www.facebook.com/events/1456840841186843/

[Canalina Profile]

Poland v Ukraine will be refereed by a russian trio
https://www.rugbyeurope.eu/2019-20-reic ... vs-ukraine

Unfortunately the other pages of the RE fixtures give an "error" response so we can't see who is going to referee the other already fixed games

Germany: Mark Kuhlmann is the new national team head coach. (from totalrugby.de)
Kuhlmann succeeds the coaching duo Byron Schmidt and Melvine Smith, who, due to professional changes, could not provide a reliable permanent solution. Kuhlmann, 51-year-old, made 48 international appearances for the DRV and was also the captain for a long time. In addition, he was an assistant coach under Rudolf Finsterer on the national team between 2006 and 2009.
The aim is now to complete the coaching staff around Mark Kuhlmann. Lars Eckert has already agreed as assistant coach, who will increasingly focus on the back line. Eckert himself was a long-time national player and was active at RK 03 Berlin and SC Neuenheim, where he was most recently the Bundesliga coach. As team manager, Alexander Widiker will remain with the national team for the logistical tasks. In addition, Colin Grzanna will continue to take care of physical development and medical issues. Another assistant coach, who is increasingly taking care of the storm game, will soon complete the staff.
The next course is planned for the team from October 8th to 11th. A test match against the Netherlands is to take place away from October 29 to November 1, before the meeting with Switzerland on November 21 as part of the Rugby Europe Trophy. However, all these dates are still subject to development and the associated measures to cope with the corona pandemic.

[Canalina Profile]

Tongan born Vaha Halaifonua will debut on October 10 with the polish jersey, against Ukraine.
He arrived in Poland in 2017 and he plays in Skra Warsaw; his brother David wore the Tongan jersey in the last two World Cups

https://www.pzrugby.pl/news/aktualnosc/ ... fonua,6511

[Armchair Fan Profile]

I am really concerned about REC and RWC qualifiers. Our women's national team just had to suspend its training camp because of two positive tests. What are the odds of no outbreaks among six teams travelling all over Europe and coming back and forth from their clubs for 7 weeks? Is Rugby Europe working on alternative scenarios and formats if everything goes wrong?

OK, I talk from the country in worse shape (and I've suffered the direct consequences) and I get others shouldn't care about our issues, but it would sound wise to me if home and away games between the same teams were played in consecutive weekends over the next two years to reduce greatly the risks, for example.

[Thomas Profile]

With no Vaccine in sight. this year should be written off. this is coming from a personal level.

I am well aware the need for sport etc but the risks are to great and is it worth it?

[Canalina Profile]

(and I've suffered the direct consequences)

Did you get it?

I think there are no other chances than trying to go on with the REC. At worst, it will be called off at mid season. Russian championship was able to proceed (but some games were/are postponed also there); the french championship various categories are going ahead, even if with several postponements so far; other national championships are proceeding, maybe because they don't require tests.
I wonder which are the REC rules about the epidemic: are they going to require virus tests to the players match by match or not?

[Bogdan_DC Profile]

In Romanian championship we start having cases&one game postponed also. In March&February REIC it will be just a matter of time until we will have cases.
Everything could transform in a "who is free of Covid19" Championship.

[Armchair Fan Profile]

(and I've suffered the direct consequences)

Did you get it?

Yes, I've spent last 20 days at home. I was lucky but I can understand concerns about it.

[Canalina Profile]

Good recovery!
Is it so bad like they say? Many people manage to go through it with few problems, but I've read about several persons (one of them was the "infamous" italian politician Berlusconi) saying all the same thing: "I had never felt so bad in my life"

[Armchair Fan Profile]

I had mild symptoms. I suffered eight days of light fever (never above 37.5ºC) and coughing without big issues to breathe, plus some diarrhea. I apparently recovered and spent three days well, only to have fever again and start having black-tainted defecation. After fifteen days at home I was becoming crazy and went for a small walk at late hours. I normally walk 12, 13 km per day. I'm a 28 year old healthy guy. I went for 2 km and it was horrible. My heart rate went high after just a few meters, only to fall and have blood pressure issues. Both rate and pressure dance a lot for me. I'm apparently well but something isn't still alright and it will take time for me to fully recover. I really fear about strokes and blood clots.

As I said, I was lucky. But public healthcare system and checkers are a nightmare. I had to pay for all my tests because a doctor doesn't call you until 10-12 days later. And they only ask you for direct contacts in the 48 hours prior to symptoms, I had to call everybody personally because I know I caught it 4-5 days before (I only had two close contacts indoors with people without masks in the last two months, I've been very cautious, yet I couldn't avoid it).