The European sevens season starts this weekend

Possibly the biggest ever European international sevens season starts this weekend in Amsterdam. Twelve international sides will be taking part in the biggest women's sevens tournament ever held in the Dutch capital - three times as many teams national teams than entered last season - along with another 12 club or invitation teams.

The line-up includes the Netherlands, plus their development team, "Samurai" (largely England), Spain, Canada, Brazil, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Poland, Norway, Georgia... and Old Albanians Saints, who may just be wondering what they have let themselves in for. Favourites will be either the Dutch or the Canadians, though Samurai should be strong (if maybe a little under-prepared compared with the rest), while South American champions Brazil are not used to losing.

In a couple of weeks time everything moves to Rome where an even more impressive (if as yet unconfirmed) line-up is being suggested - including Italy, Brasil, China, Spain, Colombia, Israel, Germany, USA, France, Netherlands, and Portugal, plus semi-official Australian, New Zealand and England teams (though the latter seems doubtful as England are due to play in a tournament in Richmond on the same weekend).