Georgia and Spain will meet in the men’s Rugby Europe Championship final on the weekend of March 15 after they both won their semi-finals at the weekend.
It was Spain who sealed their Grand Finals final place first on Saturday, getting the better of Portugal 42-31 at the Estadio Nacional Jamor in Lisbon.
Spain got off to the perfect start and moved into a 10-0 lead thanks to a try from No.8 Raphaël Nieto, who was named Player of the Match, and five points from the boot of centre Gonzalo Lopez Bontempo.
A try from winger Diogo Rodrigues, converted by stand-off Manuel Vareiro, got Portugal into things before a converted effort from Spain winger Gauthier Minguillon put them 17-7 up.
The sides then swapped penalties to make it 20-10 to the visitors while both sides had players yellow carded around that time, too.
With their man back on and Spain still with 14, Portugal took advantage with a converted Raffaele Storti try, the winger being one of the best finishers at this level.
Just before half-time Portugal had another player yellow carded and a penalty from Lopez Bontempo made it 23-17 to Spain at the interval.
Spain added 10 points when Portugal were shorthanded and that period at the start of the second half was very important to the overall outcome of the game.
Minguillon scored his second try and Lopez Bontempo kicked a conversion and a penalty to make it 33-17 after 49 minutes.
Portugal then lost yet another player to the sin bin and a Lopez Bontempo penalty made it 36-17 heading into the final quarter.
Rodrigues’ second try which was converted gave the home side a glimmer of hope before two Lopez Bontempo penalties made it 42-24.
With five minutes to go, in a match that had been full of poor discipline, Spain had a man yellow carded and Portugal scored a late converted try through replacement Antonio Andrade.
It was to be Spain’s day though as they came through 42-31 against their old rivals.
Then on Sunday, reigning champions Georgia made sure of their final spot with a comfortable 43-5 last four win over Romania.
Wingers Alexander Todua and Akaki Tabutsadze scored first half tries as the Georgians took control here, second-row Mikheili Babunashvili, scrum-half Gela Aprasidze and centre Tornike Kakhoidze also going over and stand-off Luka Matkava (player of the Match) converting two to make it 29-0 at the interval.
Romania had no answer to the pace and power of the hosts and by the 67th minute it was 43-0 with further converted tries having been added by replacements Giorgi Akhaladze and Giorgi Kveseladze.
A late consolation try came for Romania via sub Alin Conache, but it was too little, too late.
Georgia will now host Spain in the final in a fortnight while Romania will be away to Portugal in the Grand Finals third/fourth place play-off on the same weekend.
in the Rankings Finals fifth/sixth place play-off that same weekend it will be Netherlands versus Belgium.
The winner of that one will still have a chance of making it to Rugby World Cup 2027 and they got through to the game after victories over Germany and Switzerland respectively on Saturday.
In the National Rugby Center in Amsterdam, Netherlands saw off Germany 38-9 in their Rankings Finals last four tie.
Then, at the Stade du Pachy in Waterloo in Belgium, the home side dispatched Switzerland 38-5 later in the day.
Those results mean that, on the final weekend, Germany will host Switzerland in the seventh/eighth place play-off match.
