1996–97 FIRA Tournament
The 1996–97 FIRA Tournament was the 32nd edition of the European rugby union championship for national teams organized by the Fédération Internationale de Rugby Amateur (FIRA).
| 1996–97 FIRA Tournament | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | 22 November 1996 – 17 May 1997 | ||
| Countries | Belgium Czech Republic Denmark Georgia Germany Morocco Netherlands Poland Portugal Russia Spain Tunisia | ||
| Tournament statistics | |||
| Champions | Spain | ||
| Matches played | 24 | ||
| |||
France, Italy and Romania did not participate, in order to privilege other appointments. France and Italy had to play the final of the previous trophy, due to the large number of international matches, only on 23 March 1997, after this tournament was started. Both countries were not interested to continue to participate in the FIRA senior competitions and this would be their last presence at the competition.
The tournament had a new formula. Twelve teams were divided into four pools of 3 teams. After a round robin, they were ranked in 3 groups to define the ranking, also valid to divide the Teams for the second round qualification to 1999 Rugby World Cup.
There was no second division, the other 18 European teams played the first round of qualification to the 1999 Rugby World Cup.
Spain and Portugal qualified for the First Place final, which was won by the Spaniards by 25-18.