15 nations kick off Euro 7s season
15 European national sevens teams from all three levels of the European Championship were in action last week in two tournaments in France.
Published by John Birch, May 14th, 2016
4 minute read
Germany looked strong at the Stanislas Sevens, but were not strong enough to win the final
The Stanislas Sevens in Nancy last weekend included 10 national teams - Germany, Georgia, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Romania, Denmark, Hungary and Israel – plus club and invitational teams from France, Germany and South Africa.
Nine of the national teams will be playing in the second level European Trophy, but it was the Ile de France team based mainly around the Bobigny Top 8 team who dominated the tournament, beating Norway, Sweden, Romania and Germany on their way to the title.
Despite that, by reaching the final, Germany – relegated from the top level of European Sevens last year – demonstrated that they are in a good position to challenge for a quick return. They will be particularly pleased with their quarter-final win over Sweden, who are expected to be a major challenger for promotion. That hiccough aside, Sweden still went on to win the Plate (5thplace), only losing games against the two finalists.
Romania, ranked just behind Sweden, took third thanks in part to a fortunate draw that saw them meet teams all lower ranked than them (apart from their semi-final against Ile de France), and on this form will be competing hard for promotion as well.
Georgia – the only third tier team in the tournament – reached the Shield final following a 17-0 win over Israel, who were promoted to the second level in their place last year. Israel themselves had a difficult weekend, being well beaten by most of the teams they are likely to meet in the European Trophy this season, apart from Denmark who were promoted with them.
Stanislas results
On Thursday and Friday Portugal, Netherlands (playing as “Windmills”), Belgium, Ukraine, Finland, and Georgia took part in the Centrale Sevens, along with the Basque team Euskadi, Tuks (manly Pretoria University), University of Paris, and a mainly Australian Tribe team.
Although a smaller tournament, the teams were generally higher ranked than at Stanislas with all of the national teams except Georgia from the Top 12 – with Portugal competing for a place in Rio at the repecharge qualifier in Dublin.
Indeed, Portugal were the outstanding team on the pool phase, being the only team to finish unbeaten with big wins over the Dutch, Tuks, Paris and Euskadi. Tribe would also have been unbeaten but for a surprise 22-0 loss to Belgium in their final game – the surprise being not so much the result, as the Belgians had been effective in their other games, but the margin of victory.
Unfortunately, big though the win was, it was not big enough for the Belgians to force a place in the cup semi-finals, so Tribe and Portugal were joined by Ukraine and Paris.
Tribe recovered from the Belgian loss to shave Portugal 19-17 in the game of the tournament, and met Ukraine in the final… and overwhelmed them to win 59-0. Portugal finished third with a 24-7 win against Paris.
Conclusions from the weekend? In the Top 12 (and the Rio qualifier) watch out for Portugal who, on this form, will continue to “shock” many of the top teams, and Belgium could exceed their seeding as well, and Finland – who beat the Dutch on Day 2 – will be no pushovers. In tier 2, Germany will be favourites for a promotion spot, but expect strong challenges from Romania and Sweden.