{"id":533948,"date":"2026-03-11T19:38:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T19:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/533948\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T19:38:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T19:38:18","slug":"hot-stats-semifinals-mens-rugby-europe-championship-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/533948\/","title":{"rendered":"Hot Stats Semifinals Men\u2019s Rugby Europe Championship 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tThe dust has settled, and Georgia and Portugal will be this year\u2019s finalists, having both overcome Romania and Spain in two highly entertaining semifinal matchups.<\/p>\n

As for the ranking semifinals, Switzerland and Belgium will compete for 5th\u00a0place, while the Netherlands and Germany will face off to avoid finishing last.<\/p>\n

So, what were the semifinals’ Hot Stats? From Jules Porcher’s sprinkling of magic to Portugal\u2019s remarkable discipline, find out what the crucial data points were.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Switzerland: Jules Porcher was (again) a menace <\/p>\n

Switzerland and Germany, a game that came back and forth more than a few times, but that in the end was conquered by the Swiss, and deservedly so.<\/p>\n

But, in a highly competitive match,\u00a0which specific detail ultimately determined the outcome?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Without wanting to sound like a broken record, Jules Porcher. Yes, yet again the \u2018small\u2019 Swiss fly half delivered a stellar performance, exercising his right as one of the Men\u2019s REC\u2019s leading threats, cracking open the German defence with ease and mastery.<\/p>\n

Whilst he gathered 15 points from the tee, Porcher\u2019s unpredictability disrupted Germany\u2019s defence, making it easy for his side to reach the triumphantly try area.<\/p>\n

Switzerland managed to reach the opposition\u2019s 22 18 times, striking points in seven instances with Porcher directly involved in all but one of them.<\/p>\n

A unique player for a unique team.<\/p>\n

Belgium: clean breaks made the difference<\/p>\n

As expected, the Low Countries derby had a bit of everything with Belgium racking up a 40-15 win, with 20 of those points scored in the game\u2019s opening 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

With Guillem Grau running a tight show, and Theo Adaba and Florian Remue acting like the world’s best battering rams, allowing the\u00a0Diables Noirs\u00a0to breach the Dutch defence eight times, while the opposition failed to do so even once.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Despite both teams having the same number of defenders beaten, Belgium made it pay by cruising past the opposition\u2019s defence, whether through line breaks or tries.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the Netherlands’ inability to break through the locals\u2019 line of defence meant they had no path to victory, even when they seemed to have the ball under their control.<\/p>\n

For all the improvements shown by the Dutch in this year\u2019s Men\u2019s Rugby Europe Championship, it wasn\u2019t enough to overcome an experienced Belgium side targeting a 5th-place finish once again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Georgia: when in doubt the scrum delivers<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Lelos\u00a0are heading to Madrid to fight for the right to retain their status as the Men\u2019s Rugby Europe Championship title holders, but they had to dig deep to defeat a spirited Romanian side.<\/p>\n

While Marco Bortolomia\u2019s Georgia managed to secure a 53-30 win in the end, the visitors held the lead twice and were mounting a good defensive pressure to deny the likes of Niniashvili, Tabutsadze and Metreveli from scoring any tries.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

However, when the\u00a0Lelos\u00a0backline wasn\u2019t clicking, the forward pack took it upon themselves to change the game\u2019s direction, exercising complete dominance in the scrum.<\/p>\n

In the opening 40 minutes, the locals decimated the Romanian scrum, making the opposition concede four penalties that paved the way for Tabutsdaze and Metreveli to score Georgia\u2019s inaugural tries.<\/p>\n

While in the second half, they weren\u2019t as dominant, it was enough to put down what was a promising performance from Romania. If they exert the same power and will over Portugal in a few days, then Georgia will firmly hold the Champions’ crown for another season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Portugal: discipline clinched a final<\/p>\n

Possibly Portugal\u2019s finest performance after their historical victory over Fiji in the 2023 Men\u2019s Rugby World Cup, the\u00a0Lobos\u00a0reigned supreme at the Est\u00e1dio do Restelo, qualifying for the competition\u2019s final after defeating Spain 26-7.<\/p>\n

However, although the result was built on a stellar defensive and counter-attacking performance, the main \u2018Hot Stat\u2019 is Portugal\u2019s remarkable discipline.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After the completion of the game\u2019s first half hour, the\u00a0Lobos\u00a0had only conceded one penalty, something unheard of. Not even under Patrice Lagisquet did they manage to achieve such a feat, which proved crucial in securing a memorable victory over their all-time rivals.<\/p>\n

Simon Mannix previously stated that limiting penalties to fewer than 10 was vital to securing victory against Spain, and this was validated in the match this past Sunday.<\/p>\n

While they were less disciplined in the closing stages of the game, this did not affect the outcome, as Portugal had already secured a monumental victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Lobos\u00a0are now heading to Madrid after clinching a sixth consecutive win, and hope they still have enough gas in the tank to take on the Georgia challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The dust has settled, and Georgia and Portugal will be this year\u2019s finalists, having both overcome Romania and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-533948","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\/533948","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=533948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}