In Rome on Friday a two day tournament will kick off probably (its not been confirmed yet!) featuring France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, and Brazil, plus "Aotearoa Maori" (the nearest thing there is to a Black Ferns sevens team, being as NZRFU will not field one), and a US/NZ invitation team. Aotearoa Maori (who, despite their name, are not a Maori team but rather an unofficial invitation made up of mainly, but not exclusively, leading New Zealand players) are the holders, beating France last year - but this year Netherlands will be the team to beat. The Dutch - without the Canadians to frustrate their ambitions - should make the final, but whether they will go the extra step will depend on who Aotearoa bring with them.
In Zanka, Hungary Europe's third tier of nations will be competing the continent's Division 3 title (or "Division B" as it is also sometimes called... just to confuse everyone!), and promotion (for the winners). The hosts will be the overwhelming favourites - only Poland are likely to off a significant challenge. Indeed, Hungary should not be competing in this tournament at all.
When Wales pulled out of the Division 1 championship, all seeded nations moved up one - and Hungary (as top seed in Division 3) should have moved into Division 2. Unfortunately had they volunteered to be hosts for this tournament and - rather than have a tournament without a host team - the next team down (Norway) moved up. Chances are the Welsh RFU are not that popular in Hungary...
Finally in Richmond, London the Scrumqueens Elite Women's Sevens features Sweden and England, as well as several club and invitational teams. What is remarkable is that this will be the first time England have ever played in a sevens tournament in England - and, if they play Sweden, it will therefore be their first ever home sevens international (they did play an exhibition game at Twickenham in 2008, but that was against Aotearoa Maori, so was not an international). If you are in London on Saturday it'll be worth going along - play starts at 9am.
Incidentally, do not expect this tournament to be a walk in the (Old Deer) park for England. Teams have not been announced yet, but it is likely that the English team will be based around the recently announced (and young and, generally, inexperienced) sevens squad. Sweden, on the other hand, have reserved most of their best players for sevens this year - there are more players from the World Cup in the sevens squad this year than the XVs. Also, though RFUW are now beginning to take Sevens seriously, it has always been seen as a bit of end-of-season fun - whereas for nations like Sweden its a very serious game indeed.
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