Hungary’s 37-5 win away to Finland at the weekend means the next phase of Rugby World Cup 2019 qualifying in Europe will see the Stags meet Bosnia and Herzegovina; while the Czech Republic take on Malta.

The winners of each play-off game will then battle it out for the right to meet 2017 Rugby Europe Trophy winners Portugal in the play-off to see who faces the runner-up from the Rugby Europe Championship qualification process to secure a final home-and-away clash against the third-place team from the Pacific Tri-Nations. The loser of that fixture going into the repechage competition.

Hungarian fly-half Martin Sacase converted his own try and three others as well as slotting three penalties as the Stags overcame a slow start to secure their place in the play-offs.

Hungary went into the game needing only two points to be certain of the Conference silverware but they found Finland tough to break down in the first half and only led by a point thanks to two Sacase penalties.

Sacase kicked a third five minutes into the second period but nearly an hour had passed before Hungary finally crossed the whitewash through Gregoire Collet.

With their resistance finally broken, Finland then shipped three more tries in quick succession, Sacase dotting down four minutes later before Collet got his second and winger Komel Kiss added a fourth on the stroke of full-time.

Romania beat World Cup-qualifiers Georgia 8-7 earlier in the year to secure the 2017 Rugby Europe Championship and put themselves in a strong position to qualify for the only remaining European automatic spot ahead of next year’s championship, which will also count towards qualification.

Spain finished third this year and will be Romania’s main rivals for automatic qualification but are themselves well-placed for a showdown against the third-place team from the Pacific Tri-Nations.

After last weekend’s final round of games in the Europe Conference attention turns to 20 May when Hungary face Bosnia and Malta play the Czech Republic in the play-offs.