FIRA Nations Cup

The FIRA Nations Cup is an rugby union tournament which has European teams that isn't competing in the Five Nations Championship.

An Olympic event to begin it
The European Nations Cup first began in 1936 when the German Olympic Committe declared that rugby would be placed on the Olympic schedule after the event got dropped at the previous Olympics in Los Angeles. The event would consisit of four teams with the hosts, France, Italy and Romania all competing for the gold medal. The first edition saw Germany take the championship after they defeated France in the final by only three points.

With the success of the first edition, the tournament was expanded from four to six with the Netherlands and Belgium joining the four teams. But both got eliminated in the first round in which France would take it out at their home ground. The last edition before the second world war saw Germany retake the trophy.

Set-up again
After the World War was over, the Five Nations Championship was reset with the European Championship not far behind as it would be recreated in 1952 with a challenge format being implanted. This meant that now Germany national rugby union team went straight to the final where they would lose to the French in the final. France would go on to defend their title in 1954 as they would once again defeat Italy in the final.

Six years later and under a new name, the FIRA Nations Cup was reborn with six teams competing in the tournament in two groups of three.