Georgia and Russia have confirmed their places at the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy 2011 after reaching the final of the FIRA European Under 19 Championship.
The traditional rivals overcame the challenge of Junior World Rugby Trophy 2009 champions Romania 29-3 and hosts Belgium 23-11 respectively to set up an interesting title decider.
Georgia, who will return to the JWRT stage for the first time since the inaugural event in 2008, were never behind against Romania, who have placed in every Junior World Rugby Trophy event.
It was not until the second half though that Georgia were able to breach their opponents' try-line in Mons, prop Levan Chilachava, full back Zurabi Dzneladze and centre David Losaberidze all ultimately touching down.
The other semi final was equally tight, full back Denis Simplikevich and centre Alexey Vasiliev scoring first half tries to send Russia in with a slender 10-6 advantage at the break.
Experience for Russia
Belgium hit back to take the lead within minutes of the restart through centre Jens Torfs, but Russia were not to be denied with replacement Vitaly Zhivatov and flanker Veniamin Vengerov touching down to seal victory.
Russia will be no easy opponent for Georgia in the final and lined up against Belgium with virtually all of their starting XV having played in the JWRT 2010 on home soil earlier this year, when they proved the surprise package in finshing third behind Italy and Japan.
Romania and Belgium will now try to bounce back in the third place play-off, with neighbours Portugal and Spain meeting to decide fifth place after overcoming Ukraine 33-0 and Poland 44-12 respectively on Wednesday.
Ukraine and Poland will meet in the seventh place play-off on Saturday.
Georgia and Russia swell the number of Junior World Rugby Trophy 2011 qualifiers to six, with Zimbabwe (Africa), Japan (Asia), Uruguay (South America) and Samoa (Oceania) having already come through their own regional tournaments.
