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1995–1997 FIRA Trophy

European rugby union championship

Field	Value
name	1995-97 FIRA Trophy
date	19 November 1995 – 23 May 1997
countries

champions
matches	41
previous year	1992–1994
previous tournament	1992–1994 FIRA Trophy
next year	1996–1997
next tournament	1996-1967 FIRA Tournament

The 1995–1997 FIRA Trophy was the 31st edition of the European rugby union championship for national teams. The 1995-97 edition was arranged once again with a new format.

Due preparations for the 1995 Rugby World Cup, France, Italy and Romania did not participate in the 1994-95 season of the competition, so for that season a Preliminary Tournament was arranged with ten other teams. The higher ranked seven teams were admitted to this tournament, with France, Italy and Romania.

The tournament was undergoing a difficult time, due to decreased interest from the strongest teams: France usually sent reserve teams, and Italy were playing matches with the likes of Australia, England and Wales.

This is evident looking the results and the programme. France played the first round robin with their Military team, Italy and Romania did not arrange a match for this tournament, but played a match on neutral ground against Argentina for the "Latina Cup". Italy sent two lower level teams to play (during the same weekend) the last two matches. The previous edition's final between Italy and France was played in March 1997, while the 1996-97 edition was already half completed.

This edition was the first ever triumph of Italy in the competition, defeating France by 40-32 in the final, thus cementing their claims to be the sixth European rugby nation powerhouse. Italy had started to play in this tournament with France in 1966 and, despite some close results, had never previously beaten their strong rivals. Italy's win, shortly after France had won the 1997 Five Nations Championship, was a historical feat that proved to be crucial for Italy's admission at the Six Nations Championship in 2000.

First Division

Preliminary tournament

Three directly admitted

And seven qualified from the preliminary tournament

Pool A

Place	Nation	Games	Points	Table
points	played	won	drawn	lost	for	against	diff.
1	****	4	4	0	0	194	29	+165	12
2		4	3	0	1	91	90	+1	10
3		4	2	0	2	37	95	-58	8
4		4	1	0	3	41	70	-29	6
5	**	4	0	0	4	11	78	-67	2

France qualified to Final

withdraw

Pool B

Place	Nation	Games	Points	Table
points	played	won	drawn	lost	for	against	diff.
1	****	4	4	0	0	249	35	+214	12
2		4	3	0	1	218	54	+164	10
3		4	2	0	2	70	177	-107	8
4		4	1	0	3	61	195	-134	6
5	**	4	0	0	4	43	180	-137	4

Italy qualified to the final

Point system: try 4 pt, conversion: 2 pt., penalty kick 3 pt. drop 3 pt
Click "show" for more info about match (scorers, line-up etc.)

Francescato (2), Mazzucato, Orlandi, Platania (2), Properzi

This was the heaviest defeat of Portugal until their loss to New Zealand (108-13) at the 2007 Rugby World Cup

Final

52' e 82' Bondouy 79' Sadourny 34' Gardner 56' Croci 74' Vaccari

Pierre Villepreux

Georges Coste

Second Division

Pool 1 (Gold)

Place	Nation	Games	Points	Table
points	played	won	drawn	lost	for	against	diff.
1	****	4	3	1	0	107	31	+76	11
2		4	3	0	1	40	61	-21	10
3		4	2	0	2	52	48	+4	8
4		4	1	0	3	62	80	-18	6
5		4	0	1	3	37	75	-38	4

GEO duly arrived but DNK did not take the frozen field claiming it was not safe Reference: Georgia Rugby Record 1959-2009, p 152,155 http://issuu.com/qaflan/docs/ka-mataine50

Pool 2 (Silver)

Place	Nation	Games	Points	Table
points	played	won	drawn	lost	for	against	diff.
1	****	2	2	0	0	69	21	+48	6
2		2	1	0	1	25	38	-13	4
3		2	0	0	2	17	52	-35	2

Third Division

Pool 1

Place	Nation	Games	Points	Table
points	played	won	drawn	lost	for	against	diff.
1	****	3	3	0	0	84	11	+73	9
2		3	2	0	1	50	44	+6	7
3		3	1	0	2	20	61	-41	5
4		3	0	0	3	38	76	-38	3

Pool 2

Place	Nation	Games	Points	Table
points	played	won	drawn	lost	for	against	diff.
1	****	2	1	0	1	31	20	+11	4
2		2	1	1	1	42	32	+10	4
3		2	1	0	1	23	44	-21	4

Pool 3

Place	Nation	Games	Points	Table
points	played	won	drawn	lost	for	against	diff.
1	****	2	2	0	0	37	18	+19	6
2		2	1	0	1	26	33	-7	4
3		2	0	0	2	24	36	-12	2

Bibliography

Francesco Volpe, Valerio Vecchiarelli (2000), 2000 Italia in Meta, Storia della nazionale italiana di rugby dagli albori al Sei Nazioni, GS Editore (2000) .
Francesco Volpe, Paolo Pacitti (Author), Rugby 2000, GTE Gruppo Editorale (1999).

References

Rémy Fiere. (24 March 1997). "L'Italie toute jeu, la France toute flemme. Les rugbymen transalpins ont créé la sensation samedi à Grenoble". [[Libération]].
Emanuele Rossano. (23 March 1997). "Storica meta, l'Italia insegna rugby ai francesi". [[Corriere della Sera]].
This team was based on the "Students' team", preparing for the incoming University World Cup, reinforced with the presence of the national captain [[Massimo Giovanelli]]

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