Great Britain triumph in first public test

Over 27 years ago a Great Britain women’s team played in their one and only tournament, losing to France in the final of the first European Championship. Today the new Great Britain sevens team – formed for the Olympics next year – went one better. Playing in their first public tournament they came from behind to beat France, who had won all of their pool games, 35-19 in the final.

The Great Britain squad is predominately made up of the England World Series squad, so as well as preparation for Rio this tournament was also a warm-up for Dubai next month. One unanswered question may what effect the inclusion of Welsh and Scots players in training programme who will not be eligible to play in the World Series may have on England’s performance, but on the evidence of Elche things are going very well at the moment.

The British team had already met Spain and France this year, in the behind-closed-doors Guildford tournament a couple of weeks ago, and it was very obvious how much that competition had benefited all three teams. On day one at least they were noticeably sharper than Ireland or Portugal, who were having their first outing of the season, though as the tournament proceeded Ireland certainly improved significantly, holding the French to 0-0 at half-time in their final pool game before conceding three tries in the second half.

That was France’s final pool game, a pool that went almost perfectly to plan forles bleus. With several new players in their expanded squad it was always going to be interesting to see how fifteens stars such as Jessy Tremouliere fitted into the existing squad. And the answer seemed to be very well, Tremouliere in particular offering the extra power that finally broke the Irish defence. Other than a penalty try against Spain, France conceded only two scores in the pool – both to Great Britain – and looked strong.

Britain also looked good in the opening phases, scoring heavily against Spain and Ireland and, although they conceded tries in all their first day games, it was clear from early on that they would be joining France in the final.

Spain had a comfortable 24-5 day one win over an Irish team still coming up to speed, but otherwise were a step behind France and Great Britain, losing comfortably to both which suggests that they may be involved in another dice with relegation in the upcoming World Series.

Ireland will also find it tough, but what was impressive was how they improve. Through they finished fourth in the end, Spain had much more of a struggle beating the girls in green on day two than day one.

Finally Portugal have always had the ability to cause surprises, but this weekend rarely represented a serious threat to the other international sides.

In the final itself, France raced into an early two-try lead, but Britain came back to lead 14-12 at half time and maintained that advantage throughout the rest of the game.  Over the 20 minutes of the final they seemed fitter, stronger and faster than the French who perhaps had already shown signs of tiring in their previous game.

Looking ahead there are three weeks to go until we reach Dubai, and what we can conclude from Elche is that Europe’s top two teams – France and England - look like having just the same battle as they did last year.

Day One

Day Two