From the 24 to 31 October Belgium is playing host to the finest talent from Europe's top developing rugby nations, hosting the FIRA Under 19 Championships across the Brussells and Liège regions.

Hosts Belgium and seven other nations - Romania, Russia, Georgia, Portugal, Spain, Poland and Ukraine - will participate in a straight knock-out format in a bid to qualify for the 2011 IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy, which is played at Under 20 level.

"You have five nations there whose senior sides have qualified for the Rugby World Cup so it will be a strong tournament and we (Belgium) are ranked second on last year's Under 18s," Belgium's Rugby Union President Daniel Roelands told Total Rugby Radio.

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"Our aim is to reach the IRB's Junior Trophy event next year and I think we have a fair chance, it's our clear objective."

Ranked 26 in the IRB World Rankings, Belgium's senior side lies just outside the bracket of nations that regularly scrap for the final few places at the Rugby World Cup. Roelands accepts that is a fair assessment of where Belgian Rugby currently is, although it is clear he has burning ambitions.

"Our objective is to come as close as possible to qualifying for the Rugby World Cup. Spain did it once, Portugal made it there once, why shouldn't we achieve that in the foreseeable future?

"We have been trying hard to develop our youth programme as well as the senior national side, in order to ensure that we have continuity.

"Some of them are already playing close to professional rugby in France, in academies at the top clubs where they can continue in their training and their education, and we will have a fair assessment of where we are in that respect in the coming weeks."

The opening matches, effectively quarter finals, will be played on 24 October with the winners and losers going on to play further knock-out and ranking semi finals on 27 October.

The final and ranking play-offs will be played on Saturday 30 October.

24 October - opening round
Romania - Ukraine
Belgium - Poland
Russia - Spain
Georgia - Portugal