Germany to take on Dutch for fifth place

Play-offs round-up

GERMANY and the Netherlands will contest the fifth-place final.

Poland have been relegated to the Rugby Europe Trophy after their heavy 54-7 loss to the Netherlands and Germany’s 21- 11 victory over Belgium.

Having suffered backto-back defeats to Spain and Georgia at the start of their tournament, Netherlands followed their 39-13 win over Germany last weekend with an eight-try demolition with scores from Ross Bennie-Coulson, Daily Limmen, Wolf van Dijk, Pieter Schoonraad, Christopher Raymond, Vikas Mejier and Max van Hilst, while Max Loboda was the sole Polish try scorer with a late consolation effort.

Poland were winless in the competition after defeats to Romania, Portugal, Belgium and Netherlands and drop into the European third tier.

Belgium secured a remarkable upset victory over Portugal earlier in the tournament, but their campaign has unraveled since with losses to Romania and now Germany.

Belgium were ahead 11- 10 after Hugo de Francq’s penalty and Thomas Wallraf ’s converted try, with Edo Stella knocking over a penalty and Mika Tyumenev scoring a try for the visitors.

Vito Lammers’ try overturned the deficit and Nikolai Klewinghaus’ conversion followed by a penalty and then a drop goal completed a memorable victory for Germany.