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74 WORLD RUGBY YEAR IN REVIEW 2015Three months after the Junior Lelos won the World Rugby U20 Trophy for the first time, the senior national team recorded a third-place finish in Pool C at RWC 2015, after wins over Tonga and Namibia, to qualify directly for the next tournament in Japan. Fellow European qualifiers Romania also did the region proud, pulling off the biggest comeback in the tournament’s history when they recovered from 15-0 down to beat Canada 17-15.By winning the U20 Trophy Georgia earned promotion to the RUGBY ON THE RISE ACROSS EUROPEABOVE Georgia scrum-half Vasil Lobzhanidze became the youngest player in RWC history in their opening win over TongaAs Europe staged the most successful Rugby World Cup in history in 2015, it was a year when Georgian rugby also rose to new heights. World Rugby U20 Championship in 2016, their place in next year’s second tier competition being taken by Spain, who qualified for the tournament in Zimbabwe courtesy of their victory over Romania in the final of the Rugby Europe Under-19 Championship. Meanwhile, Switzerland beat hosts Czech Republic to lift the European U20 Cup crown.Georgia’s senior national team also reigned supreme in the European Nations Cup, winning all five of their matches to top the Division 1A table at the halfway stage of the biennial competition. Belgium enjoyed a similarly impressive record to ride high in Division 1B, while Switzerland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovakia lead the way in their respective divisions.Meanwhile, victories over the Czech Republic and Switzerland saw Belgium win the 2015 Rugby Europe Women’s Championship. France won the men’s and women’s Rugby Europe Grand Prix Sevens Series titles and with it the prize of automatic qualification for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. As series runners-up in their respective competitions, Spain’s men and Russia’s women made it through to the global repechage. Spain will be joined in Monaco on 18-19 June by European repechage qualifiers Russia, Germany and Ireland, while in the women’s event, held in Dublin a week later, Spain, Ireland and Portugal have a chance to keep their Rio 2016 dream alive.Off the field, the Training and Education Support adoption scheme continued apace with several developing European nations benefiting from the expertise of Six Nations unions in the fields of player, referee and coach development, while World Rugby’s highly successful Get Into Rugby participation programme reached new audiences throughout the continent.www.rugbyeurope.eutwitter: @rugby_europe INSPIRING PARTICIPATION | AROUND THE REGIONSincrease in Get Into Rugby participants from 2012-2014 period to 201530%