Europe’s Division B aiming high

Israel in action against London Pumas

It may be the bottom tier of European sevens that has its championship this weekend, but anyone watching (the tournamentwill also be streamed) can expect a good standard of international sevens.

That was demonstrated by the recent visit of a strong London Pumas team to Israel. The team – which included Welsh international Rebecca de Filippo – lost two out of three sevens games played against the Israeli national team, though they did record a comfortable win in a XVs game in what was probably the first XVs game played by an official Israeli team. Also Finland – promoted from Division B only two years ago – have now made it all of the way to the Grand Prix series after reaching the Division A final last weekend, and last year’s champions Hungary won the bowl in Kaunas, drawing with Sweden on the way.

As usual the top two teams will be promoted, but this year the teams will have even more to play for as the tournament winner will also go to Lisbon for the Olympic Repecharge Qualifier next month.

Last year the Division B tournament was controversially reduced to a single day, but this year it reverts to the standard two-day format.

With no Emerging Nations tournament this year, there is little or no form on which to judge who the tournament might go. The top two seeds areDenmarkandCroatia, who were relegated from Division A last year, but they will be hotly challenged byIsraelwho finished third in both 2013 and 2014. They were finalists at theAthens Sevensin April.

Denmark line up in Pool A alongsideTurkey, LuxembourgandMontenegro, who will be playing in the first European Championship as last-minute replacements for Slovakia. The Turks will be the main threat. This will be their third championship, after finishing 7thin 2013 and 6thin 2014.

In Pool B Croatia will be up againstMalta, BulgariaandSlovenia.Malta lost in the semi-final stages to Israel in Athens and were plate winners in this tournament last time, so should make the quarter-finals alongside Croatia.

Pool C brings together Israel,Latvia, SerbiaandAustria.The Austrians have a long history in European sevens. They were the prime movers behind the former Developing Nations tournaments, and past winners of the plate in Division A. The last two seasons have them slip rapidly down the rankings, having finished 11thin Division A, and last year 11thin Division B. Latvia have also tasted life at a higher level, but overall Israel’s preparations look good enough for them to win the pool.

The full draw can be found on theRugby Europe website. Play begins at 10AM CET (9AM BST).