Italy and Georgia, the top two seeds, will contest the European Under 19 Championship final in Portugal on Saturday with the winner to qualify as the region's representative for the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy 2010.
The top seeded Italians were the pre-tournament favourites, having been relegated from the IRB TOSHIBA Junior World Championship in Japan earlier this year and enjoyed a second convincing win, this time 40-10 over Spain.
Italy again saw two of their key players from that Under 20 side in Japan cross for tries with captain Tommaso Benvenuti and Giovanbattista Venditti again crossing for two and one try respectively, just as they had done in their side's opening 45-5 defeat of Portugal.
Flanker Nicola Belardo also got his name on the scoreboard in the first half before number 8 Gabriele Cicchinelli crossed for two tries around the hour mark to ensure Italy's smooth passage into the final, Spain's only try in the match having been scored by Marcos de la Cueva.
The final against Georgia in Coimbra should be a closer affair, pitting Italy against the only side in the eight-team tournament to have played at an IRB age grade competition in recent years, having finished third in the inaugural IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy in the Chilean capital Santiago in 2008.
Penalty shootout
Georgia had enjoyed a comfortable victory over Germany in the opening round, but found life harder going against their rivals Russia in the other semi final, only edging it 12-8 to move to within one victory of another appearance at the Trophy and the dream of succeeding Romania as champions of that IRB tournament.
In the other matches on Wednesday there was an even tighter battle with hosts Portugal locked at 12-12 with Belgium at the final whistle. They ultimately edged the penalty shootout 4-2 and will now face Poland, the 22-14 conquerors of Germany, in the fifth place play-off on Saturday.
The European Under 19 Championship will swell the confirmed IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy field to six teams with defending champions Romania joined by regional qualifiers Zimbabwe (Africa), Papua New Guinea (Oceania), 2008 winners Uruguay (South America) and Japan (Asia).
The remaining places will be filled by the Host Union and the North American qualifier, be that Canada - another side relegated from the IRB TOSHIBA Junior World Championship - and USA, the side beaten by Romania in the Trophy final in Kenya back in April.
