{"id":471071,"date":"2026-02-10T17:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T17:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/471071\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T17:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T17:52:16","slug":"hot-stats-of-round-1-of-the-mens-rugby-europe-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/471071\/","title":{"rendered":"Hot Stats of Round 1 of the Men\u2019s Rugby Europe Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tWhat a way to start the Men\u2019s Rugby Europe Championship 2026 season, with Germany managing to earn a tremendous result over Romania.
\nBut how did the Round 1 winners fare? How did Spain, Portugal and Georgia manage to earn bonus point victories?
\nWe had a thorough look at the stats and picked the hottest ones!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Spain: Scrum pens won vs the opposition<\/p>\n

Los Leones\u00a0came out with a bang, scooping up a 51-33 win in their trip to the Netherlands, with the set-piece playing a key role in what was an enjoyable match.<\/p>\n

Spain delivered a blockbuster first half with the forward pack bossing their rivals around, collecting five scrum penalties in under 40 minutes. While the stat might not sound very attractive, it was crucial in helping the visitors set up a platform that led to 15 unanswered points.<\/p>\n

The sensational work-rate from the front-row trio Bernardo Vasqu\u00e9z, \u00c1lvaro Garc\u00eda, and Hugo Pirlet, and the lock pairing of Matthew Foulds and Ignacio Pi\u00f1eiro, forced the Dutch pack to concede several penalties and lose their footing. <\/p>\n

Samu Ezeala and Alberto Carmona\u2019s first and second tries were a direct result of Spain winning a scrum penalty advantage, giving the Spanish backline time and space to opt for a riskier approach. <\/p>\n

Although the\u00a0Oranje\u00a0second half performance was a step up from what happened in the opening 40 minutes, it wasn\u2019t enough to overcome Spain\u2019s early lead and to nullify what the Spanish forward pack had accomplished until then. <\/p>\n

With Georgia coming up in two weeks, it will be highly interesting to understand where the\u00a0Los Leones\u00a0stand regarding the scrum dominance pecking order.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a9 Erik Den Burger\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Portugal: Marques with a 25-point masterclass <\/p>\n

Diamonds are forever, and so are the Men\u2019s Rugby Europe Championship legends, with Samuel Marques being a remarkable example of that.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Lobos\u00a0scrum half didn\u2019t pull any punches and completely tore apart the Belgium defence by not only scoring one try, but assisting for Rodrigo Marta and Domingos Cabral\u2019s tries, giving a titanic push for Portugal\u2019s win at Stade Charles Tondreau.<\/p>\n

While the experienced half back didn\u2019t break any individual all-time competition\u2019s records, you can\u2019t deny how influential he was for his side\u2019s win, injecting the will to win into his fellow teammates and working overtime to give his side a bonus point win.<\/p>\n

The cherry on top was his 20 points from the tee, with the 37-year-old slotting eight out of nine kicks to provide a lifeline to Portugal when Belgium was working hard to make a comeback.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Marques will always be regarded as a true great of the Men\u2019s Rugby Europe Championship, and his Player of the Match performance in Mons will help define how big an operator he was and remains for Portugal.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Georgia: 85 tackles made, none missed inside their last 30<\/p>\n

Georgia and Switzerland delivered a competitive clash for the fans who had flocked to the Yverdon-les-Bains Stade Municipal, with the reigning champions needing to go deep to earn a 54-03 win.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Edelweiss\u00a0army managed only to concede one try in the first 40 minutes, a significant accomplishment considering that only a couple of teams had achieved the same in the last ten years.<\/p>\n

Olivier Nier\u2019s side made 189 tackle attempts, completing 165, a stunning number considering who they were playing against. However, Georgia\u2019s 85 successful tackles were also remarkable, as they missed only 10, with none happening from inside their last 30 meters.<\/p>\n

While it wasn\u2019t their best overall performance of the last few years, you can\u2019t deny how resolute and relentless their defence was with Beka Saginadze, Giorgi Javakhia, Giorgi Melikidze, and Ioane Iashagashvili locking in several tackles to allow Georgia to fly out of Switzerland with no conceded tries.<\/p>\n

Two massive defensive performances, but only one victor, and that was Georgia.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Neil Dodd<\/p>\n

Germany: Aerial take downs took Romania down<\/p>\n

From a last-place finish in 2025 to deliver a monumental result in their opening game against Romania, Germany showed they aren\u2019t just here to make up the numbers, as they have a chance to qualify for the Championship semifinals.<\/p>\n

While most fans will only remember Leo Wolf\u2019s final and match-winning try, we have to analyse what pushed the\u00a0Schwarze Adler\u00a0towards this memorable win: the aerial takedowns.<\/p>\n

The German back line issued fifteen high up kicks \u2013 the classical\u00a0up and under\u00a0\u2013 with Romania unable to gather the large majority of those. Not only did the oval-shaped ball spill out of the\u00a0Stejarii\u00a0player\u2019s hands, but it also fuelled Germany\u2019s attack, leading to 18 of their 34 points.<\/p>\n

Leo Wolf, Christopher Henning, Robin Pl\u00fcme, and Michael McDonald kept launching what looked like guided missiles, sowing doubt and creating problems on the Romanian side, which was unable to adjust to Germany\u2019s kicking strategy.<\/p>\n

In years to come, fans will acknowledge Mark Khulmann and his staff’s brilliance, especially in how they found a way to frustrate and overcome Romania.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Jurgen Kessler<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

By Francisco Isaac<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What a way to start the Men\u2019s Rugby Europe Championship 2026 season, with Germany managing to earn a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-471071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}