2025 Rugby Europe Championship
The 2025 Rugby Europe Championship, which doubled as the qualifying process for the 2027 Men's Rugby World Cup and World Rugby Nations Championship's second division for Europe, was the most recent, ninth Rugby Europe Championship, the annual rugby union competition for the top European national teams outside the Six Nations Championship, and the 54th edition of the competition.
Eight teams took part in the 2024 championship. The championship was contested by Belgium, Georgia, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Poland. Georgia won the previous championship after defeating Portugal in the final, claiming their 16th title. Poland were relegated. After winning the 2023–24 Rugby Europe Trophy, Switzerland were promoted to the Championship for the 2025 season. This was the first time in their history that they are in the top division.
The serpentine system was applied to allocate each team to their respective groups. Each team plays a total of five games. Seeding and relegation are calculated over a two-year cycle, as is the promotion from the Trophy competition.
World Cup qualification format
This year's edition of the Rugby Europe Championship doubles as the year of the 2027 Rugby World Cup qualifiers for the European region. The top two sides from each pool will qualify for the Rugby World Cup, with the final & bronze final acting as seeding matches to seed the team Europe 1–4. The Ranking Finals will then act as the play-off to determine Europe 5, who will advance to the final qualification tournament.Eight teams competed during the European qualifiers for the 2027 Rugby World Cup, with England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales already qualified from the Region prior to the qualification process.
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