NETHERLANDS and ITALY were celebrating after lifting the Euro B and D titles respectively on Saturday – both earned in high-scoring victories.
The Dutch overturned a narrow half-time deficit to beat SERBIA 38-30 in Belgrade, while the Italians saw off CZECHIA 46-38 in Abbiategrasso thanks to five tries from centre Sam Elrick Ngeng.
Serbia, who won Euro B last year but have now been relegated, overcame early tries by Arie-Tjerk Razoux-Schultz, Dimitri Haringa and Ryan Barbuto to lead 14-12 at the break.
Aleksandar Pavlovic and Zaric Saban got Serbia on the board then hooker Sasha Popovic grabbed tries either side of half-time.
But back-to-back scores from Paul Kuijpers and Razoux-Schultz and Sylvan Vonken tipped the balance towards the Dutch.
Damian Vukovic and, after a Mitchell Barbuto try for the visitors, Pavlovic again kept Serbia in it but they couldn’t make up the difference.
“These are the stories that make rugby league special,” said Netherlands head coach Jason Havenaar, whose side also beat Ukraine on Wednesday.
“Overcoming adversity, showing toughness, it has been an incredible tournament.
“Credit to Serbia – they were brilliant and pushed us to our limit, and for hosting us. They make tournaments like this possible and their growth as a rugby league nation is apparent to all.”
That wasn’t much consolation to Serbia coach Darren Fisher, who said: “A failure to capitalise on the lead led to our momentum being halted and our mistakes kept Netherlands in the game.”
They are joined in Euro C by Italy, who got the better of an end-to-end game to clinch promotion.
Gianmarco Scalabrini, Leonardo Ruggeri Falaniko and Simone Ngeng all scored tries along with the heroics of Sam Ngeng, of whose five tries three came in the second half after Czechia went into half-time only 22-20 behind.
“We struggled to find our way, it wasn’t not possible for us to complete sets because of the opposition,” said Italy head coach Elio Giacoma.
“They were so physical and dictated the speed of the game so credit to them, but a shout to our boys because they stuck to the task. We completed our goal and that’s the most important fact.”
Tomas Adamec, Jan Chuchlik and Matej Schejbal each scored doubles and Jaroslav Novotny also crossed for the Czechs, whose game with Norway on Saturday is now a dead rubber.
Jakub Hudrlík, their player-coach, said: “We had some expectation based on our last results, so we wanted to give our heart in the match.
“We were able to keep up to Italy and I am really proud of our team. It was one of the best games we ever played.”
MALTA, meanwhile, won a women’s international with the PHILIPPINES on Saturday, 20-6 in Croom, New South Wales.
