2016–17 Rugby Europe International Championships
The 2016–17 Rugby Europe International Championships is the European Championship for tier 2 and tier 3 rugby union nations. The 2016–17 season is the first of its new format and structure, where all Levels play on a one-year cycle, replacing the old format of a two-year cycle, where the teams played each other both home and away.
| 2016–17 Rugby Europe International Championships | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | September 2016 – May 2017 | ||
| Countries | 35 | ||
| Tournament statistics | |||
| Champions | Championship Romania (5) Trophy Portugal (1) Conference 1 Czech Republic (2) Malta (1) Conference 2 Hungary (1) Bosnia and Herzegovina (1) Development Slovakia (1) | ||
| Antim Cup | Romania (6th title) | ||
| Matches played | 69 | ||
| Attendance | 177,923 (2,579 per match) | ||
| Tries scored | 427 (6.19 per match) | ||
| Top point scorer(s) | Championship Bradley Linklater (51) Trophy David Weersma (52) Conference Ori Abutbul (60) Development Petar Nikolov (31) | ||
| Top try scorer(s) | Championship Giorgi Koshadze (4) Giorgi Tkhilaishvili (4) Trophy Sep Visser (6) Conference James Kirk (7) Development Dusan Vucicevic (4) | ||
| Official website | Rugby Europe | ||
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For all teams competing, except the Development league, this year's edition of the Rugby Europe International Championships doubles as the 2019 Rugby World Cup qualifiers for the European region, where the winner of the Championship, excluding Georgia, automatically qualifies to the tournament as Europe 1. All other teams remains in contention, playing in their respective leagues, but also playing in World Cup play-offs, for the right to play in the Europe/Oceania play-off against Oceania 3.