Germany retained the “Augustus The Strong” trophy with an emphatic 58-18 win in a men’s senior international for world ranking points in Nowe Skalmierzyce, Poland. Centre Linus Kurz, on debut, and Trouts teammate, scrum half Harry Miles, shared the honours with four tries apiece.

NRLD president, Bob Doughton, commented: “We were really pleased with our performance and the manner and spirit in which the game was played. It was a good run out and I was happy with some of the rugby we played. We are looking forward to showing a similar hospitality to Poland when they visit Berlin next year for the next instalment.”

Eryk Wiśniewski got Poland on the board just before half time to make it 22-6 at the break, and they had the satisfaction of scoring the final try by Mateusz Kłosiński.

Poland men’s head coach, Dean Reacher, said: “We thank Germany for their historic visit here and I was really impressed with both teams – we made strides forward despite the final scoreline. I was pleased with our effort, and we’ve seen improvements. Hopefully we will show more of that when we face Czechia.”