2012 should be the year of the Women's European Rugby Championship. It happens once every four years, in between the World Cups, and normally features the top eight national teams in the A tournament, and all of the rest in a B tournament.
In 2000 10 teams took part, in 2004 this rose to 12, and in 2008 13. But in 2012 only eight teams will be in the championship (see here for fixture information)
The A event, in Italy, will include only four teams - England, France, Italy and Spain - and the B competition will only include Finland, Netherlands, Russia and Sweden. This also means that - for the first time - Scotland, Wales and Ireland do not seem to have entered the European Championship.
Quite why is anyone's guess - but it seems very odd. It is certainly not a positive development step by these Unions (especially Ireland who do not even have the excuse of preparing for the Sevens World Cup).
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