6 Nations & USA Sevens: A trans-Atlantic international weekend

Day One in a unique trans-Atlantic weekend of women's international rugby is drawing to an exciting climax. In Ireland the home team has just fallen agonisingly short of beating France. The Irish outscored France two tries (and one all-out brawl) to one, but the French had brought their kicking boots with them to this game, and three penalties out of four were enough to give them a 14-12 victory that will make the game against England in two weeks time (live on Sky!) the title decider. See ScrumQueens match report.

Meanwhile, eight timezones to the west, under glorious blue skies and with one of the most dramatic backdrops of desert mountains that any rugby tournament has ever seen, another French team has been playing in the USA Sevens, alongside the USA, Canada, Netherlands, Spain, a Canadian "B" team ("Maple Leafs"), a strong Hawaiian team.... and a club team from Innsbruck that somehow ended up in the wrong event(!).

And its been a great day for the French here too, with a place in the semi-finals alongside Spain, both sides disposing of the Maple Leafs and Hawaii with few problems. However, the other pool has been fascinating with USA, Canada and Europe's third ranked sevens team - Netherlands - battling for the two semi-final places.

Canada gained the first advantage, a last second try overturning the Dutch 12-10. The Dutch then did the same to the USA in a great game that saw the USA recover from 14-0 down to lead 15-14 with less than a minute left, before a third Dutch try gave them a 21-15 win. USA then beat Canada in a fierce game by 7-5, which meant that Netherlands needed to win their final game by over 34 points. Which they did - beating the Austrian club team playing as Tyrolian Select by a massive 89-0.

So the semi-finals tomorrow will see Spain play Canada, and Netherlands play France - which means a real chance of a repeat of last year's European Sevens Final in Moscow, which Spain win 28-12.