Poland triumph at international camp
One of the great losses this season has been the disappearence from the calendar of the European Emerging Nations Camp, but the Czech RFU hosted a competition last weekend that went some way to replace it.
Published by John Birch, April 4th, 2015
3 minute read
Organised annually by Renée Carmine-Jones from the Austrian RFU from 2005-2014, the Emerging Nations camp was an imporant annual event for rugby development in eastern and central Europe. However, partly due to reoganisations within Rugby Europe, the weekend will no longer take place, leaving a substantial hole in the preparation calendars for several rugby unions as they gear up for the European Sevens Championships, which in this year have the extra attraction of being the first stage in an Olympic qualification process.
Funding remains a major challenge for many of the unions, causing the Czech Republic team to cancel a recent trip to Scotland. Wishing to organise replacement training option before the start of the central European season, the Czech players and coaches found a sports facility near Prague large enough to allow them to organise not only a training camp for the national senior and U18 teams, but to also invite and accommodate two of the country's leading clubs - RC Tatra and RC Říčany - and the Polish and Lithuanian national teams.
The three-day camp had a similar format to the Emerging Nations camp, finishing with a small tournament which resulted in the same winner as the2013 tournament.
Czech Republic19:0PolandPoland33:0LithuaniaCzech Republic 45:0 Lithuania
RC Tatra31:0RC ŘíčanyCzech Republic U18 26:21 Lithuania
Final: Czech Republic 12:26 Poland
Martin Charvát reports that the weekend was a great success:
"Kamila Rousová, which was playing one year in Ireland for Old Belvederes and won Irish championship with them (as the scrum half!) is back, full of ideas, enthusiasm and experiences.
The newly-formed Czech U18 team really works and girls are absolutely thrilled. Poland also had a good weekend as they were able to beat Czech Team once, which doesn't happen so often, and the Czech Team under the new coaches Michal Ouředník and Dan Beneš were able to plan for the spring season, including the Amsterdam Sevens and European Championshipss in Kaunas, introducing a few new faces in the team as well."