England win first Euro Sevens in Ameland

from Scrumqueens:

England came from behind to beat Spain 21-10 in the final of the first tournament in FIRA’s European Sevens Series (you can read a review of day one tournament involving Europe’s Top 12 teams here).

Conditions on day two are very similar to day one, with a very strong wind blowing down the ground. It had an effect on many games – significantly more points being scored with the wind.

One was France’s final pool game. On the very edge of the semi-finals, after excellent performances on Day One, all they needed to do was beat Italy who had hitherto been unimpressive with only a win over Switzerland and a 0-0 draw with Sweden. France rested several key players – including tournament top scorer Caroline Lagadnous – and with the wind behind them Italy raced to a 12-0 lead in the first half.

Despite wholesale team changes in the second half Italy kept France down to a single score. However, this ultimately did not affect the make-up of the semi-final teams – although it was initially announced that Russia would go through to the last four on points difference, thanks to a 30-0 defeat of Sweden, this was corrected as results between two teams are the first tie-breaker if they finish level.

Netherlands confirmed their semi-final place with a 48-0 demoloution of Moldova, Annemarije va Rossum being the hero this time with four tries and two conversions.It was a performance that briefly took her to the top of the points scorers table, until Ruth Laybourn scored five tries for England against Switzerland half an hour later. Spain finished off the pools with a decisive win over the brave Ukrainians, who will now have the Plate in their sight.

And so to the semi-finals. England were again too strong for Netherlands, with a similar result to the London Sevens final. Tries from Watmore (who clearly enjoys playing against the Dutch), Fisher and Burford in the first half gave England a comfortable17-7 lead at the break, which Burford extended to 24-7 midway through the second half. Elke van Meer scored for the Netherlands.

With a certain inevitabity, given the history of the tournament, England’s final opponents were Spain, 14-5 winners over France despite having a yellow card. It was the fourth final in nine finals that the two had met – and England have won on each occasion. They did again here – but Spain have never been closer.

England took the lead almost from the start,with Rachel Burford scoring her fourth try of the tournament. Richardson converted, and there was no further scoring until the 7th minute when Heather Fisher was yellow carded. England defended wellin her absense, but just after she returned Barbara Pla broke down the wing, England going into the break with a narrow 7-5 lead. Even that did not last long – four minutes after the restart Barbara Pla scored again, and Spain were in front 7-10. They held the lead until three minutes from the end, Scarratt breaking though to put England back in front. This time there was no coming back for Spain, and a third England try from Jo Watmore at the end of the game took the score to 21-10 at the end.

England Women’s Sevens Head Coach Barry Maddocks said: “We are delighted to have won this title which puts us in a really good position ahead of the final round in Moscow later this month.This has been a challenging tournament especially the final against Spain, where they battled all the way. We were not as clinical in the final, and certainly did not play to our best – we know we are capable of more – but that is another stepping stone for us to look at and improve on for the final tournament of this season. However, it is great to see the girls digging deep and fulfilling our targets for this tournament.”

England will now take the top seeding to Moscow, where the players rested from this weekend will make them an even more powerful side. Spain are clearly the number two team in Europe, while the Dutch will take the third seeding after their win over France.

Overall Ukraine have moved up the most in this tournament – jumping from 12th to 7th in the rankings, and unlucky not to do even better. The effect all this will have on the likely pools for Moscow can seen below.

Video from all games are or will soon be available at http://www.youtube.com/user/rugbynederland .

Pool A Russia 30-0 Sweden France 5-12 Italy England 53-0 Switzerland	Pool B Netherlands 48-0 Moldova Portugal 19-7 Germany Spain 21-5 Ukraine
W D L F A England France Russia Italy Sweden Switzerland 5 3 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 2 2 3 5 159 94 119 45 14 12 12 26 41 67 112 178	W D L F A Spain Netherlands Ukraine Portugal Germany Moldova 5 4 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 120 141 83 43 36 0 22 19 52 63 107 114

 

CUP Semi-finals: England 24-7 Netherlands Final (1st/2nd) England 21-10 Spain	Spain 14-5 France 3rd/4th place Netherlands 19-12 France
PLATE Semi-finals: Russia 36-0 Portugal Final (5th/6th) Russia 33-0 Italy	Ukraine 7-10 Italy 7th/8th place Portugal 7-33 Ukraine
BOWL Semi-finals: Sweden 19-0 Moldova Final (9th/10th) Sweden 5-10 Germany	Germany 40-5 Switzerland 11th/12th place Moldova 7-10 Switzerland

Leading point scorers:

59 points: Olga Blanutsa (UKR) 
45 points: Caroline Ladagnous (FRA)
44 points: Patricia Garcia (ESP)
43 points: Annemarije van Rossum (NED)
41 points: Barbara Pla (ESP)
40 points: Yulia Guzeva (RUS), Navrat Khamidova (RUS), Ruth Laybourn (ENG), Alice Richardson (ENG), Kelly van Harskamp (NED)
37 points: Lorraine Laros (NED), Laryssa Stone (GER)
32 points: Anastasiia Mukhariamova (RUS)
30 points: Ekaterina Kazokova (RUS)
25 points: Violetta Ocheretiana (UKR)
24 points: Rachel Burford (ENG)
22 points: Tessa Veldhuis (NED)
20 points: Jo Watmore (ENG)

Leading try scorers:

9: Caroline Ladagnous (FRA)
8: Yulia Guzeva (RUS), Navrat Khamidova (RUS), Ruth Laybourn (ENG), Kelly van Harskamp (NED)
7: Olga Blanutsa (UKR), Yulia Guzeva (RUS), Barbara Pla (ESP),Laryssa Stone (GER), Annemarije van Rossum (NED)
6: Ekaterina Kazokova (RUS)
5: Navrat Khamidova (RUS)
4: Rachel Burford (ENG), Patricia Garcia (ESP), Violetta Ocheretiana (UKR), Tessa Veldhuis (NED), Jo Watmore (ENG)
3: Mariia Bondar (UKR), Natasha Brennan (ENG), Carole Caspasis (SWI), Natasha Hunt (ENG), Anais Lagougine (FRA), Lorraine Laros (NED), Violetta Ocheretiana (UKR), Jula Pla (ESP),

Each final and ranking game is important, not only for points for the series (1st = 20, 2nd = 18, 3rd = 15, 4th = 14, 5th = 12, 6th = 10, 7th = 7, 8th = 6, 9th = 4, 10th = 3,11th = 2, 12th = 1) but also because ranking – and therefore pools – will be depend on these results, and Moscow will also act as the World Cup final qualifier.