GB to replace England in Euro 7s

Action from this year's Grand Prix (Photo: Masha Anderson)

The move is obviously related to the participation of Great Britain in the Rio Olympics, which will take place only a few weeks after this tournament in Kazan (the dates of which have yet to be announced).

The Olympics – and in particular the qualification tournament in Dublin – also means that the second leg of the Grand Prix in Brive will not take place until September. The implication of the Rugby Europe announcement is that the two Great Britain teams will also play in that tournament as well, though in practice they are very likely to revert back to England and Wales even if they remain nominally “Great Britain 1” and “Great Britain 2”.

What is clear is that England and Wales’ tournament seedings for 2017 will be based on the performances of these Great Britain teams, with England’s position dependent on that of “Great Britain 1” while the fate of Wales (including potential relegation) will depend on the results of “Great Britain 2”.

Scotland, on the other hand, will still play as “Scotland” in the “Women’s Trophy” second tier tournament, where they will be the top seeds. In theory any Scots players in the GB squad could play in both tournaments!

Intriguingly the Women’s Trophy draw is also described as “Leg 1” implying that – as well as a change of name – this may also become a two leg tournament.

Notable by its absence is any mention of the third tier. With some 40 European nations now fielding active national sevens teams it is hard to believe that Rugby Europe could drop a tournament that is so crucial for the development of the game for nearly half of the continent, including countries such as Austria, Malta, Turkey and the Baltic states. However Rugby Europe have struggled to find affordable venues in recent years (two years ago the tournament was played on a single day, and last year was part of a double-header with the men) so hopefully this is the reason for a delay in any announcement – that, perhaps, and the question of how they decide which teams will play as there are now significantly more than 12 third tier nations. Interestingly the men’s third tier have been divided into two “conferences” for 2016 and hopefully the women’s tournament(s) can played alongside one or both of these events.

Finally the draw for the U18 championship was also announced with addition of France in place of Belgium - plus the intriguing addition of well-known European nations Canada, United States, China and Japan (making it very nearly a U18 World Cup). Again date and venue has yet to be announced. An exciting development, though a little hard on the Belgians who hosted the last tournament, and reached the quarter finals after being runners-up in their pool, finishing eighth overall.

2016 European Sevens pool draws:(Seedings in brackets)

European Grand Prix (1stleg, 11-12 June, Kazan):

Pool A:France (1), Netherlands (6), Great Britain 2 (7); Finland (12)Pool B:Russia (2); Ireland (5); Italy (8); Belgium (11)Pool C:Spain (3); Great Britain 1 (4); Ukraine (5); Portugal (10)

European Trophy (1stleg, 18-19 June, venue: Esztergom, Hungary. Second leg (TBC ) Prague.):

Pool A:Scotland (1); Switzerland (6); Czech Republic (7); Israel (12)Pool B:Germany (2); Poland (5); Norway (8); Denmark (11)Pool C:Sweden (3); Romania (4); Hungary (5); Moldova (10)

European Conference (TBA):Possible participants, in seed order:Georgia; Lithuania; Croatia; Latvia; Turkey; Malta; Bulgaria; Luxembourg; Slovenia; Serbia; Austria; MontenegroplusBosnia-Herzegovina; Slovakia; Estonia; Greece…

Rugby Europe U18 Championship (venue and dates TBA):

Pool A:England (1); Italy (8); Ukraine (9); Japan (16)Pool B:Spain (2); Wales (7); Sweden (10); China (15)Pool C:Germany (3); Ireland (6); Russia (11); United States (14)Pool D:Portugal (4); Netherlands (5); France (12); Canada (13)

How it works: The new quarter-final draw system

This system will be used in the World Series, European Championships – and Olympic Games (and, come to that all other tournaments involving 12 teams).

Before this season, the best performing pool winner in the pool phase was the top seed in the quarter final draw, the next best second seed, and so on.

The big difference in the new system is that the winner of Pool A will nowalwaysbe the top seed for the quarter finals, while the winner of Pool B willalwaysbe second seed and the winner of Pool C willalwaysbe third seed.

Similarly the runner-up in Pool A will always been seeded sixth, the Pool B runner up will always been seed four, and the runner up in Pool C will always been seeded five.

The only area where performances in the pool phase will matter will be for seeds seven and eight, with the best performing third-placed team (regardless of pool) being seventh seed and the second best seeded eighth.

Or, in summary, the draw for the last eight teams will always be:

1: A1 v Second best third placed team2: B1 v Best third placed team3: C1 v A24: B2 v C2

Semi-finals will be the winner of match 1 v the winner of match 4, and the winner of 2 vs the winner of 3.

The draw for the bowl competition is unchanged.

One result of this is that a pool winner can no longer play the runner-up from the same pool in the quarter-finals. However it also favours the top ranked teams in Pools A and B as if they win their pool they will always play a third ranked team, whereas the winner of Pool C will always play the runner-up from Pool A.

For example, if the Grand Prix pool follow the seedings the quarter-final draw would be:

France (A1) v second best third placed teamRussia (B1) v best third placed teamSpain (C1) v Netherlands (A2)Ireland (B2) v Great Britain 1 (C2)

And, on the same basis, the quarter-final of the next round of the World Series in Sao Paulo would be:

Australia (A1) v second best third placed teamRussia (B1) v best third placed teamEngland (C1) v Canada (A2)New Zealand (B2) v France (C2)