Major nations turn down Euro Cup place

The draw for the European Cup, womens rugbys oldest international tournament, has taken place.

Disappointingly this year only eight nations have entered with Wales, Ireland and Scotland the most high profile countries declining to take part this summer.

There is no confirmation yet as to why they have decided not to take part although both Wales and Scotland are likely to be focusing on the this summer which they have both entered. Ireland's non participation means it's likely once again that they may not play another fixture in 2012 beyond March and with no 7s programmes to speak of, and no representative teams beyond the senior side, Ireland look set to fall further behind the rest of the home nations in their development at international level in the coming years.

This will be the ninth edition of the Championship, which first took place in 1988, and was played more or less annually from 1995 to 2000. Since then the tournament has been played on a four year cycle, fitting neatly in between the quadrennial World Cups.

Four teams France, Great Britain, Italy and Netherlands took part in 1988, and by 1996 the entry had risen to just five. However, from 1997 when England, Scotland and Ireland entered for the first time (joined by Wales in 1999) the tournament became a major event, including almost all of the continents larger rugby nations. By 2000 the entry risen to 10, in 2004 there were 12 entrants, and in 2008 13 nations took part.

This year however the competition has a different look. Of the four Home Nations only England are included in the draw despite Wales finishing as runners-up in 2008, and Ireland third. Furthermore, the competitors have been divided into two groups with only the leading four teams (in Group A) competing for the actual continental title.

The Group B tournament will take place first. Netherlands, Finland, Russia and hosts Sweden will compete in Enkoping in what will be a straight knock-out competition, with the semi-finals on 3rd May , and the final taking place four days later.

The IRB are to shortly announce the qualification paths for the 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup in Paris - and it could well be that this summer's European B tournament is used to determine seeding but more will be known when details emerge.

The following week the four Group A teams England, France, Italy and Spain will compete for the continental title in Rovereto, in Italy. Their tournament will be a round-robin, and though there will be no final, the draw has been arranged so that the probable strongest two teams will meet in the final round.

Teams: Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Russia, 3rd-7th May.

3rd May: Netherlands V Finland. 3rd May: Sweden V Russia. 7th May: Third place. 7th May: Final.

13th May: England v Spain; France v Italy16th May: Italy v England; France v Spain19th May: England v France; Italy v Spain

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