Great Britain women win World University Championship

The FISU World University Championship for women's rugby sevens has been won by Great Britain for (I think) the first time. A powerful squad packed with internationals breezed to the title with wins over Romania (27-0), Japan (31-5), Spain (24-0); Belgium (26-5); Italy (38-5) and, in the final, hosts France (24-7).

This represented a pretty significant improvement on the last championship in 2010 where GB finished only 7th. The reason for this is that, for the first time, the British unions have taken the tournament seriously and allowed current internationals to take part, as well as releasing England's Susie Appleby to coach the team.

Lead by Emily Scarratt (Leeds Metropolitan), who scored one of their four tries against France, the team included players from universities in England, Scotland and Wales and, as well as Emily, featured players such as Izzy Noel-Smith, Vicky Fleetwood, Sarah McKenna, and Steph Johnston. Vicky and Izzy had also played in 2010, before they became England internationals.

The GB men's team also won their tournament.

Nations Cup to be revived next season

This summer will be the first "blank" summer for England's women's teams since 2007, but next year it will be "back to normal" for the world's busiest women's rugby team. The announcement about the England Ellite and U20 squads for next season included the news that the Nations Cup returns.

For the U20s it will be taking place in England, for the first time since 2009. No details yet about who else will be taking part, but the release also mentions a home-and-away series with France.

The senior Nations Cup will be in the USA, with England taking part on their way home after their three-test tour to New Zealand. In addition England will again play an Autumn home series against New Zealand, as well as a series with France, before competing for their 8th consecutive Six Nations title.

So that is a programme of at least 17 test matches for England over the next 12 months, plus the Sevens World Cup, and European Trophy for the A team.

And you thought the season was over...

The weekend actually sees the start of a pretty hectic time in the world of women's rugby. The qualification process for (slightly confusingly) two different world cup kicks up a gear, with international players jetting from tournament to tournament in a madly compressed but - from the sidelines - rather fascinating few weeks.

To start with the 15-a-side World Cup may be over two years away, but the hopes of at least two nation's players - Russia and Finland - are already over as they lost on Thursday to Sweden and Netherlands. These two should have been playing today in a sudden death play-off for a place in the final European Qualifier next year, had not FIRA and the IRB changed the rules on Thursday morning. So instead they will simply be playing for an attractive piece of glassware (see above) and the European Championship "B" title.

Should actually be a very interesting game as, with most of the leading Dutch players playing sevens, the teams are exceedingly well match - the slight Dutch advantaged balanced out by Swedish home advantage.

Today also sees the climax of the French club championship - or at least the league section as they play well into June. I suspect that few readers here will be interested by this, but having been following it for Scrumqueens all year it has been fascinating - and rugby in the south of France certainly has its attractions.

Anyway, this weekend is just a foretaste of what is to come. Next Saturday the London Sevens kicks off with its (and the UK's) first ever proper international sevens tournament. Twelve great teams - not quite the world's best as there are a few obvious gaps (Spain are not there, for heaven's sake!), but should be amazing. England, Australia, Canada, USA, Netherlands...

Then in London, as the second day kicks off, in Italy the European 15s championship begins, with England playing Spain, and France against Italy. In many ways this should have been a classic, but all teams have put sevens first and have significantly weakened squads. England are flying out several players from London for the second and third round of games later in the week and actually should now stroll this as, even without reinforcements, they now have easily the strongest squad. Pity.

Never mind though as in the middle of the week - just down the road from the 15s championship and neatly clashing with the second round of games - Rome Sevens takes place, with a New Zealand team, Italy, and several other nations - before we get the Amsterdam Sevens, starting on the 19th - genuinely the biggest women's sevens tournament since the last world cup.

All this is all just a warm-up. Because in June 36 European countries will take part in the continent's sevens championship and world cup qualification process - a long and complex affair spread over four tournaments in four countries in three weeks.

It is going to be an exhausting six weeks of intense international competition, and - it is worth remembering that - in an almost entirely amateur sport.

England 7s set marker for World Cup

Jo Watmore scores winning try for England in final

There are times when England's policy on women's sevens is a bit... hard to read. On the one hand we have the Open Trials where the policy appears to be like New Zealand - take talented athletes and teach them to play rugby as a long-term project aimed at 2016. Then, when that team fails to win everything immediately, this changes with more and more seasoned players coming in.

Over the past year each tournament seems to have had more and more players from the Elite Squad, fewer and fewer from the Sevens Squad. There are now only about four players left from the 10 selected 12 months ago, and one of them is Michaela Staniford who, with over 50 England caps, is a bit untypical of the rest!

Anyway - it is now clear, I think, that the policy is to pick the best team England can at all times, and win everything. And you really cannot argue to much with that. Not least when it works as well as it did last night.

The 12-woman squad selected for the Hong Kong Sevens - the second IRB Women's Challenge tournament - included only four players who had played in last year's European Championships, and only seven from the first IRB Challenge in Dubai last November, where England had finished as runners-up. Out when young players like Emily Scott and Sarah McKenna, and in came Elite players like Rachel Burford and Alice Richardson. With 10 "Elite" players in all, England clearly meant business.

England breezed through the pool - as they would have been expected to, facing China and Japan. The former is pouring money and resources into sevens rugby, but their target is 2016 - this is just a stepping stone on the way. The latter are Asia's third best team and, despite a lot of investment as well, are unlikely to make the World Cup next year. England scored 69 points, conceding just one try to China.

This gave England a semi-final against Canada this morning (you have to wonder who the incompetent genius behind the seeding for this tournament was, incidentally, as this was not the only occasion where match scheduling - and come to that team transport arrangements - raised eyebrows). Canada had not lost a game for over a year, and had five major titles to their name - but England won by 22-12. Then in the final England beat World Champions Australia, as they had in Dubai, this time 15-10 (ScrumQueens match report).

Its now pretty clear that England have beginning to target sevens in a way that they never have before. In May England will host their first ever international women's sevens tournament - the IRB Challenge at the London Sevens, after which it will be the European Series and World Cup qualifier, and then next year the new IRB Women's Series.

What will be interesting to see is what effect this all has on the England XVs team. French attempts to play 15s and 7s at the same time has not been a success, and when England tried it in 2009 the result was their only failure to record a Grand Slam in the past seven years.

• Overall a great 7s for England... and also Australia, and Spain - plate winners again having come with seconds on making the semi-finals. Truly criminal that they will not be in London!!! China also well after their pasting from England, thumping Russia (who had beaten Netherlands) and pushing Spain all the way.
• USA will be happy with the semi-final, and World Cup hosts Russia will also take some positives from this weekend.
• Canada, on the other hand, have had a wake-up call - they are no invincible after all. Japan will be disappointed, but for Netherlands it was close to a disaster. Two weeks in South Africa preparing, and from four games they could only beat Hong Kong....

IRB plan for the next five years

The IRB plan for women's rugby has finally been published, some months after the IRB first announced it, but its still worth a look.

The report claims that women's rugby is now played by 200,000 players in 110 countries - in both cases probably a bit of an underestimate, but rather more accurate than most IRB data on the subject in recent years. The report highlights how much interest and enthusiasm for the game has increased in recent years - but that there are still perception problems that get in the way of the game's expansion. One problem is that women's rugby tends to be seen as a financial burden by many in the game - even though research shows that, in fact, women's sport is a major missed commercial opportunity.

Interestingly (because this blog has been banging on about it for years) the report also specifically looks at U12 girls' rugby, and whether there should be more girls-only rugby at that age (rather than forcing girls to play mixed rugby).

It is no surprise to see that over the next five years- which takes us up to 2016 - the IRB's main thrust will be sevens, developing elite women's programmes in all Unions, with the aim of increasing player numbers. In fact there are some really ambitious targets for 2016...

• 400,000 players
• Women's rugby in every Union, with women's rugby represented on all Unions, regional bodies, and the IRB
• An official XVs calendar from 2012
• Women's sevens World Series by 2013
• Age grade regional (ie. continental) sevens tournaments
• Women's sevens at the Youth Olympics in 2014
• Women's rugby to be a "commercially viable product" by 2014, with increased TV coverage

Which is all pretty impressive. Quite what would happen in a Union failed to develop the women's game - or actively refused to support the game (as with Iran) isn't covered - one would hope that there would  ultimately be some sanctions.

On the subject of the world sevens series, there is more information than we have had before.For example, there will be at least four tournaments per year, with 12 teams at each event - again as this blog suspected. The top 12 teams at the 2013 World Cup will make up the compete in the following season - but after that there will be promotion and relegation.

Half of the teams for the Olympics will be the various 2015 regional champions - but the other six teams will be selected via a worldwide qualification process, so in theory there might be only one European team in Rio... or there might be as many as seven!

There is also a commitment to more test matches and XVs tournaments - and a competition model is included. Interestingly this includes an annual Asian XVs - even though this rarely happens - but does NOT include the Caribbean XVs, despite this being a firmly established annual event.

Finally, from the end of this year, it is intended that there will be official rankings for teams both at sevens and fifteens... which should be interesting.

London Women's Sevens?

Another event that there has been no official publicity for, but which seems to have sneaked into the calendars of at least two national teams, is a London International Women's Sevens - apparently to be played on the weekend of the 12th-13th May.

At first glance some of us thought that this was a misunderstanding and that maybe they meant the Amsterdam Sevens - but that is now the following week.

All that is known is that both Canada and France are definitely intending to take part - so its not just some hyped-up club event. With the World's Number One coming it's going to be pretty serious.

Its probable that England will be there too (though you can never be sure about such things) and you'd also assume that the likes of Wales and Scotland would also want to take an opportunity to warm up before their World Cup qualifier in June (but again, who knows?). Sweden have also used UK sevens to get ready for European tournaments in the past, so their participation would not be unexpected.

But at this stage who can say. Secrecy remains. Hopefully we will all be told more some time before 12th May.

Europe's route to Moscow (and details about the 2012 European Sevens series) released

While not officially confirmed, details about how Europe will decide which of its five nations will go to Moscow have now reached me from two different sources so its a reasonable assumption that they are correct.

2012 will be a huge - and potentially confusing! - year for women's sevens in Europe. 

To begin with, the top 12 - England, Spain, Netherlands, Russia, France, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Moldova, Ukraine and Switzerland - will play play two tournaments - rather than just one - (on weekends of 16th-17th June and 30th June-1st July) to decide the European Champions.

Meanwhile the rest of Europe will be starting on the road to the Sevens World Cup. Around 24 teams will take part in two tournaments to be played over the weekend of 9th/10th June. Where these tournaments will be is not yet known (as bids are being invited to host the events - and come to that two legs of the European Series as well), but sources in the Finnish RFU suggest that Wales will be taking part and will be competing with Finland, Czech Republic, Belgium, Norway, Malta, Poland, Israel, Georgia, Serbia, Luxembourg and one other team in one of these tournaments. No news about Scotland or Ireland.

The finalists from each of these tournaments will join the Top 12 at the second leg of their series, so - as well  as deciding the European Championship - the tournament will also decide who goes to Moscow. Basically - although the European title will be decided over both legs - Europe's qualifiers for Moscow will be decided based only on the second leg. 

Bizarrely this means that the European Champions could fail to qualify for Moscow if - say - they won the first leg, and then only finished 6th in the second!

Meanwhile the continent's eight leading XVs teams will also be having their European Championship, while the rest (or, at least, Finland, Sweden, Netherlands and Russia) will be competing in a a pre-qualifier in Sweden for the 2014 Womens' Rugby World Cup. Quite how this will work remains even more confusing than the Sevens at this stage... though England (and France) have no worries as they have already qualified.

...And more good news, this time from Africa

Very nearly counted out before they could get onto the field, Uganda's women's seven team - know as the Lady Cranes (all the women's teams in African seemed to be named after animals...) - are now through to the continental qualifier next year.

Uganda's women are the only team from their country to ever qualify for a world cup finals in any sport, but with their Union in financial meltdown getting to Moscow in 2013 seemed dead until an international fundraising appeal raised the money to send them to Botswana.

And they have repaid the faith of their supporters had with a 100% record in their qualifying group today - beating Kenya 17-5, Botswana 17-7 and Madagascar 17-0 - to reach the semi-finals. With the top four going through, this was enough - more than enough - to put the Lady Cranes one step away of repeating their success of 2009.

There is still this weekend's tournament to finish off, and tomorrow they will play Zimbabwe in the semi-finals, while South Africa take on Kenya. These four teams will join Senegal, Burkina Faso, Tunisia and Morocco  in Morocco next September competing for (probably) two African places at the Sevens World Cup.

Largest ever round of autumn internationals starts today

The RFU may think that there are no autumn internationals this year, but they could not be more wrong.Never have we seen so much international activity at this time of year, especially in Europe.

This afternoon France kick the season off with a game against Italy in Nice (6.30pm BST). Italy will be at close to full strength - just a couple of new caps in the front row - while France have a number of interesting young players in their squad.

The French squad then move down the coast a bit to Provence where they have two games against England, who have also picked a young, very experimental, team. RFUW are even insisting that the first game - on Wednesday in Marseilles - is not a full international, so we can expect players like the former Welwyn pairing of Hannah Gallagher and Geri Thomas to have a chance to prove themselves here. The second game next Saturday in Aix-le-Provence - will be a full test match, with everyone in the England team aiming for a place in the squad that will play New Zealand at the end of November.

The day after the France/England test, on Sunday 6th, Scotland travel to Amsterdam to take on the Netherlands in game that really could go either way - the Six Nations weakest side against a nation with the world's only professional women rugby players. Its an important game for both nations. Scotland need to pull out of a nose-dive that has seen them win just one of their last 15 internationals (against Sweden in the World Cup), while for Netherlands the target will be next spring's European Trophy, and a place in Europe's qualifier for the 2014 World Cup.

And its not just XVs rugby - this is a huge weekend for the rugby nations east and southern Africa, who gather in Botswana to sort out who four teams will play in the continent's Sevens World Cup qualifier next September. Its an event that the players from the likes of Botswana, Uganda, Kenya and South Africa (among others) will have been preparing for for years, not least because for everyone other than the South Africans this is the only World Cup they have any chance to qualify for (at the moment there is every indication that South Africa will again be given a free pass to the XVs Women's Rugby World Cup without having to worry about having to prove themselves on the field).

Most of Europe left at starting gate for 2014?

Articles appearing on Swedish and Finnish official Facebook pages this week suggest that, in Europe at least, the 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup will be as much of a closed shop as the 2010 tournament.

Although 2010 was a great success this hid the disturbing fact that, of the near 100 nations that play women's rugby (and the over 50 who have played 15-a-side internationals) only just over 20 were able to compete for one of the 12 places in the tournament. No-one from South America was invited at all, South Africa, USA and Canada were selected to represent their regions without any other teams being given a chance to compete, only Samoa from the Pacific Nations had a chance to play for a place (in a one-off game with Australia) and in Europe only 12 of the continents 36 nations were given an opportunity to compete.

With so much longer to prepare this time the hope was that perhaps more countries would be given a chance to make 2014 a truly worldwide competition. But reading between the lines this will not be the case, at least not in Europe. It seems that, while the top eight European nations will be playing for the European Championship next Spring, the next four will be playing on a "European Cup" tournament in Sweden that will - effectively - decide the 5th-8th place seedings for Europe's qualification tournament in 2013.

It does all get a bit complicated, but based on these titbits of information we can probably deduce the following:

• England and France will automatically qualify for 2014, as runners-up and hosts
• Either the top two teams from the 2013 Six Nations (or maybe the top two teams from the 2012 European Championship) (other than England and France) will also automatically qualify.
• The remaining four teams from the European Championship will be ranked 1-4 in European Qualifier, with the European Cup teams ranked 5-8.
• The top two teams from the European Qualifier will also go through.

The only outstanding question is who exactly will be playing in next springs two tournaments. The European Championship should include the Six Nations plus the top two ranked teams outside the 6N - which should be Spain and Netherlands. But Finland say that the Netherlands will be in Sweden, along with the hosts, Russia and Finland... so who will the eighth European Championship team be? The next best team in Germany - but the Germans are well behind any of these four nations. Maybe they are hosting the European Championship?

Anyway, what this does mean (if it is correct) is that Belgium (who took part in the qualifier in 2009), Switzerland (who made such a successful 15s debut earlier this month), and all of the Balkans and eastern Europe (Russia excepted) are already "out" of 2014 without so much as kicking a ball. Okay, none of these excluded teams would have been likely to have won one of Europe's six WRWC places (assuming Europe does get six again), but that is hardly the point. If the IRB really does want 15-a-side rugby to be anything other than an obscure niche version of the game it needs to at least give these developing nations a chance - but it isn't.

It will be no surprise if Switzerland's first test match is also turns out to be their last, or if Belgium stop playing and instead concentrate on sevens. After all - and in stark contrast to all of the above - it was also revealed that every  European nations will have a chance to qualify for the 2013 Women's Sevens World Cup. The 24 bottom ranked sevens teams (including Wales and - if they take up the offer - Scotland and Ireland) will compete for four places at next summer's European Qualifier, which will also include the top 12 European nations (including England). The top 12 teams will also play in a Women's European Sevens Series (played over at least two tournaments, maybe three) instead of one "Top 12" competition, as has been the case in past years.

So its great news for the continent's sevens players as every nation will have a chance to have a go, rather less good for women who play 15s - unless they live in one of the "lucky" 12 countries.

At this stage there is no word from anywhere else in the world about how the remaining non-European places in Paris will be decided, though Australia and New Zealand will get two. That leaves four places for Africa, the Pacific, Asia, North America, South America and the Caribbean.  How will they be decided - in an IRB boardroom, or on a rugby pitch?

Why women's sevens matters

With the season fast approaching its usual hectic climax, its worth remembering that for most of the world Sevens is more than a bit of end-of-season fun. Much, much, more.

The inclusion of women's rugby in the Olympics from 2016 has had no noticeable affect on the game in the UK or Ireland, a fact that makes the "Home Countries" almost unique around the world. Only maybe New Zealand are seemingly as unexcited (or uninterested) by the prospect of seeing their players take part in the world's biggest sports event.

Elsewhere in the world it is a very different story - as this excellent review by the IRB describes. Interest and participation in women's rugby is exploding across Asia - in Hong Kong and Singapore one rugby player in three is now female, while player numbers in China are exploding, encouraged by an Olympic Committee that sees women's rugby as a great possible route to medal success. And its the same elsewhere - Brazil is pumping funding into its women's team; the Netherlands team is almost full time, training four times a week; France (going by the Six Nations) seems prioritising selection for its sevens squad ahead of its 15s; Canada similarly seem to be putting noticeably more emphasis on its sevens than its 15s. And so on.

On the other hand - from the Home Nations - only England are even taking part in this year's European Sevens championship, and that is the only sevens tournament England are entering (unlike France and the Netherlands, who have already been to both the Las Vegas and Hong Kong Sevens). In fact the only European nations not playing women's sevens this year will be Ireland, Scotland and Wales!

On the rare occasions when Home Nations unions have even mentioned it there seems to be an almost arrogant belief that there is no need to do anything yet - that they will be able to roll up to the qualification tournaments and take their rightful place at the 2013 World Cup and then the 2016 Olympics. Well, as the IRB article suggests, they could be in for an awful shock...

England on their own for the Olympics?

Surprise news this evening, with potentially massive consequences for international women's sevens rugby.

Wales have withdrawn from the European Sevens championship. At this stage no explanation has been issued from the WRU. Of the 36 European nations with women's rugby teams, only three have not entered - Ireland, Scotland and Wales. England are therefore the only Home Nation in the tournament.

With the Sevens World Cup qualification process starting next year, its difficult to see any of these three entering with any hope of success - and with what is expected to be a long and complex Olympic qualification starting soon after that, its difficult to see Ireland (on their own), or Scotland and Wales (as part of a GB team) taking part in that either.

On the one hand, all this will make the creation of a Great Britain Olympic team rather easier than expected - because only England seem to have any interest in taking part, so all RFUW need to do is design a new shirt! On the other hand its all a bit weird as it seems that the Home Nations have a totally different set of priorities to the rest of the women's rugby world.  Every other nation, without exception, is prioritising sevens - from Australia to China, from Netherlands (whose sevens squad will go full-time from next year) to Kenya. Only Scotland, Ireland and Wales are heading in the opposite direction.

Disappointment as England make do with Plate

The long road to the World Cup came to an end for England in seven minutes against Australia in Dubai this morning. The clash of the top two seeds in the quarter-finals was a game neither side wanted - and it was England who looked good after the first period. Despite the loss of Jo Yapp due to injury, the number one seeds were 10-5 with tries from Claire Allen and Sue Day. But it all went wrong in the second half, with Nicole Beck (remember her?) and Rebecca Tavo scoring unanswered second half tries to put Australia through to the semi-finals 17-10.

It was a shattering blow for an England team that has travelled the world in the past 18 months, and remained unbeaten against all-comers for over a year. For an experienced squad this was not their first taste of world cup disappointment, and for some it may have been their last chance to lift a world title. 

Still, the recovered sufficiently to beat Spain in the Plate Semi-final an hour or so later - though Spain had lead 7-5 at half-time - and then beat Canada in the final 12-0. So the girls will bring a trophy home... just the wrong one (listen to coach Simon Amor after the Plate Final). The one crumb of comfort for England is that they did lose to the eventual winners - Australia squeezing past New Zealand 15-10 in overtime - a repeat of the Pacific qualifier final.

The other semi-finalists were South Africa - a nation to watch for in women's rugby over the next few years - and the USA, recovering from their pool defeat to England to get within two points of a place in the final, losing only 12-10 to New Zealand. The final piece of silverware went to China, winning the Bowl 10-7 over Brazil. Full results here.

So a great success - but where now? No sevens tour for the women - in almost all cases they will now return to their respective continents and will probably not venture beyond the odd game against near neighbours for another four years. Some may be in England next year, but the unfortunate fact is that many - most - of these teams will not. With time running out (and funding lacking) its difficult to see how the likes of Brazil, for example, or Uganda, will even be able to compete for a place.

But for most teams sevens is rugby. A way needs to be found to allow them to play more. What Dubai has shown is that women's and men's rugby tournaments can be played side by side - you do not have to banish the women's games to the training pitches (as in Scotland last year, or San Diego this) - the crowd will stay and watch and cheer (even if the commentators don't). Women's sevens can be as much of a spectacle as men's. Let's hope we do not have to wait another four years before we see this demonstrated again.

• More news, match reports, interviews, and photographs from today will appear on the IRB site during this evening
  

Fascinating first day at World Cup

Oh well, predictably maybe the video link seemed to die once the women's games came round. A reply of an old Super 14 game taking priority this morning, and blank screens this afternoon (but apparently this feed may be better). If you did subscribe to the paid feed from the IRB it sounds from some reports that the commentators went to lunch during some of the women's games! And then the IRB website seemed to lose interest in updating the women's scores and tables after the second round of games.

However, the written accounts do suggest that the TV schedulers and commentators have missed some excellent and exciting women's sevens. In the end it looks like the eight qualifiers for the cup quarter-finals will be the ones predicted, but not without the odd surprise on the way.

Of the favourites England and New Zealand have been impressive, neither has conceded a point  - and the Kiwis have racked up 120 points in three games, while USA lost to England but beat Japan and Russia comfortably.

However, Australia - after thrashing China - were beaten by France, who won the group. The French had lost to Netherlands in the opening round of games, but then the Dutch then lost to China and Australia, thus finishing bottom and living up to their "unpredictable" tag. 

And in Group C Canada did indeed, as suggested in the preview, disappoint - failing to win a group that had looked theirs for the taking a few weeks ago. In fact it was Spain who were champions of Group C. They did not concede a point until their third game, when Thailand pushed them to the wire, 19-12. In fact the Thais were involved in two heart-stopping games, only going down to Brazil 12-10 in what sounds like the best game of the first day.

So this gives us the following draw for tomorrow:

Cup:

1. France v USA

2. New Zealand v Canada

3. Spain v South Africa

4. England v Australia

Semi Finals: Winners of 1v2, and 3v4

Bowl:

1. China v Japan

2. Italy v Thailand

3. Brazil v Uganda

4. Russia v Netherlands 

Semi Finals: Winners of 1v2, and 3v4

Results and tables here (when IRB get round to updating them).

Looking ahead to tomorrow, I favour USA, New Zealand, and Spain who (on today's form) should take out South Africa. As for England against Australia? The game of the tournament so far, perhaps - and not the quarter-final that either team would have chosen. The winner should make the final - the loser will go home massively disappointed.

The Bowl is fun as well. I fancy Thailand to get to the final here - they have been so unlucky today - with maybe Russia as their opponents?

Follow Maggie Alphonsi's World Cup - and watch live!

Just discovered that the England team have set up their own blog and information pages in a Sevens website called UR7s.com. Actually I suspect that this is Maggie Alphonsi's work, rather than anything official by RFUW - Maggie being an enthusiastic user of Facebook, if I remember from the East Region dinner a year or so ago.

Some of you will have met Maggie, who lives in Hertfordshire and plays at Saracens. She often attends Herts county or East events, and she is writing a blog throughout the tournament. Its something that members of the US team have done for some time, and its good to see an England player following suit.

Danielle Waterman is also writing an "official" diary for the tournament, which is appearing on the RFUW website. Unfortunately the "unique" (ie. antiquated) nature of the RFU's website means that its impossible to come up with a link to the diary as it unfolds - the best I can come up with is this link to what I think is the latest installment ("Day 4"). Pity as Danielle is a good writer.

Finally it looks like you CAN watch the tournament - live and free. Well, at the moment! A South African TV channel call SuperSport is covering the event - and it can be seen online - see below. The men's tournament starts today, and play should go on until early evening (our time). Check it out!
Watch live video from SUPER 14 + IRB SEVENS W-CUP on Justin.tv
Only games on Pitch 1 are likely to be shown, so not much women's rugby until the semi finals. If its still going tomorrow the Women's games due on Pitch 1 (and therefore hopefully to be shown live) will be:

• 7.00am (GMT): Australia v China
• 7.22am: Netherlands v France
• 9.12am: England v USA
• 9.34am: Japan v Russia
• 1.24pm: New Zealand v Italy
• 1.46pm: South Africa v Uganda
• 3.36m: Spain v Thailand
• 3.58pm: Canada v Brazil

On Saturday:

• 12.24pm: First semi-final
• 12.46pm: Second semi-final
• 1.52pm:  Bowl final
• 3.00pm: Plate final
• 4.00pm: Cup final

All other matches scores can be followed, as they happen, on the IRB's RWC website.

World Cup Sevens preview: Pool D

Pool D seems to be a bit of a cock-up as it features both of the tournament's African qualifiers... you'd have thought the IRB would keep them apart. It is also, frankly (and maybe as a result), the least interesting group.

New Zealand should win the pool at a canter. Although their results over the past year have been uninspiring, nothing in this pool should be a concern to them.

Uganda are here to learn. Runner-up from Africa, they have an excellent record at both sevens and XVs... but very few resources, as a result of which this will be the first time they have played outside Africa.

Italy are a significantly stronger side at sevens than they are XVs, but even so were only sixth in the European qualifier and have never made a significant impact at this version of the game. They should qualify with New Zealand... but... 

...South Africa could have other ideas. Outclassed at the 2006 World Cup, they have made significant strides in recent years - especially their youth team who had some excellent results against USA U19s a year ago, and sevens is a young player's game. Their sevens team is unbeaten, but also untried outside Africa. Even so they could easily slip past the Italians into second place.

Sevens World Cup (effectively) unavailable on TV in UK

Amazing but true. Very little of the "world's largest TV audience for rugby" will have the chance to watch the Sevens World Cup in Dubai, either live or as recorded highlights. 

In the past ITV has covered the event, and though this was often staggeringly poor (experts yakking away in the studio while games were going on behind them), at least some of the tournament was available. 

This time, according to the IRB, Sky have the rights to tournament - which would be a bit of a blow for those without a dish, but would at least mean good coverage for those who do have satellite. However, desperate searching through the channel listings showed no sign of the tournament. The reason for this seems to be because the tournament will only be shown of Setanta Sports - which means that chances are there will be more players on the pitch than will be watching the competition on TV in the UK!

Setanta do show some rugby. However if anyone was tempted to take out a subscription so that they could follow events in Dubai, then first it is worth noting that Setanta will show the tournament live - as Dubai are four hours ahead this means mid afternoon our time but Setanta have no evening repeat or highlights packages planned. And second it seems that Setanta have a jaw dropping customer relations policy that makes subscriptions almost impossible to cancel. Based on that subscribing to Setanta is something that I'd certainly never consider.

You do have to wonder why Setanta have the tournament. I cannot believe there was a bidding war - after all, its not as if Setanta are making a big thing about their exclusive coverage - and you are forced to conclude that no other UK broadcaster wanted the event. Given that the UK is the main audience for TV rugby, you do wonder how this fits in the the IRB's Olympic claims that Sevens is a big, high profile sport...

But the main regret from this is the huge missed opportunity this is for the women's game. Never has women's rugby been given a greater chance to share the stage with the men's game like it will this week - shame that no-one in this country will notice.

World Cup Sevens preview: Pool C

Pool C is possibly the most fascinating and unpredictable of all the groups. Uniquely it features four nations from four different continents who have never played each other at sevens before. In fact, apart from one game between Canada and Spain at the 2006 World Cup, they have never met at XVs either. It is also the only group where it is true to say that any team could qualify - and the bonus for the pool winner is to avoid New Zealand in the quarter finals.

Canada are the North American/Carribean champions and - at XVs - probably third in the world now. However, they had a disappointing San Diego tournament and the concern may be that their sevens team peaked too early. They should go through from this pool... but there are three huge banana skins ahead of them.

Brazil are the giants of South American rugby - so far ahead of anyone else that most nations consider it a triumph to merely score against them! The problem is that neither they - nor any other South American team - have ever played (at full strength) outside South America. So... who knows what they will be like (other than ovewhelmingly confident)?

Thailand are a similar mystery. The result of intensive training and planning, they came from no-where to almost win the Asian qualifier. However, the performance of other Asian teams would seem to indicate that outside their continent they are not likely to be a significant power.

Spain only qualified fourth from Europe, but won last month's Malaga warm-up, beating France in the final - they therefore seem to be hitting their best at just the right time. Spain have an excellent sevens record, including one European Championship, one runner-up, and one third place. They should qualify from the pool with Canada - and quite possibly in first place. 

World Cup Sevens preview: Pool B

England's group, and - when it comes to qualifiers - probably the most predictable of the four pools, though what order the qualifiers will be is another question. It is also an important question as the group winner will probably avoid both Australia and New Zealand in later stages.

England are the number one seeds for the competition, and everyone's favourites. Unbeaten at Sevens for a year - since they lost a group game to New Zealand in the Amsterdam tournament that England went on to win - they have beaten all three teams in this pool within the last year, and by significant margins in two cases. England opened at San Diego with an easy 36-0 win over Japan, and over the years have now played Russia three times, scoring over 150 points over the three games without ever conceeding a single score.

That is all rather different to their record against the USA, however, where England now only lead by three games to two thanks to two wins in San Diego, the last in overtime. The game between USA and England - whichever way it goes - could be the easily be rehersal for the final such is the strength of the two teams. However, USA do seem to be developing an unfortunate reputation for bottling it - they are only in this group at all because they lost in the North American/ Caribbean qualifier to Canada (again in overtime) - so can they perform to their highest abilities when they need to?

Japan won the Asian qualifier, but were hopelessly outclassed in San Diego and should cause few problems for USA or England. Originally a major power in women's rugby, that is all long gone as, thanks a decade of chaotic disorganisation at home, they have now been caught up and largely ovetaken by a number of nations in Asia. However, the Japanese RU has now taken over the running of the national team at least and their qualifier win - though very unexpected (especially their 5-0 quarter-final victory over Asian giants Kazakhstan) - may be the first signs of their getting their game back into order. 

Russia are the growing power of European rugby, both at sevens and XVs - though as they have been playing international rugby since 1990 (ie. as long as New Zealand) it could be said that they have had plenty of time to grow! Third in the European qualifier, beating France and Spain on the way, they could have been a surprise package in this tournament if they had had a kinder draw. However, one matter of particular interest is the inclusion of two international track athletes in their squad - Alexandra Kerzhentseva and Natalia Selyutina. Kerzhentseva is a 100m and 200m sprinter, while Selyutina has represented Russia in the 200m and 400m. Both have little or no rugby experience, having been drafted straight from the track. 

World Cup Sevens preview: Pool A

The World Cup opens on Friday with first round of games from Pool A, featuring Australia, Netherlands, France, China - and, as with most of the pools, who the qualifiers will be is not as clear cut as it might first appear. Pool A is also significant as the runner-up is seeded to play against the winner of England's group in the quarter finals, while the winner will probably plays the runner-up... and then New Zealand in the semi final. Not the easiest of draws!

Australia are not normally a major power in XVs rugby. They finished an uninspiring seventh at the last world cup and rarely play international rugby. However they were a revelation in the sevens qualifer. The team was created by bringing together talented sportswomen from several sports, and especially touch rugby (or "Touch") - which is a very  serious sport in its own right in Australia. This "manufactured" team shocked everyone by beating the "unbeatable" New Zealand team in the initial group, then did it again in the final the following day. However, since the qualifier the Australian VII have not played any further games so... are they still as good as they were for that one weekend last July?

Netherlands are typical of many "minor" European nations who are a different thing entirely at sevens - they finished runners up in European qualifier, behind only England. On their day they can beat almost anyone but they do tend to be unpredictable, typified by last month's warm-up event in Malaga where they beat Spain comfortably in the qualifying pool only to lose to the same team in the semi-finals.

France are almost as unpredictable as Netherlands. In 2007 they were clearly the best team in Europe, beating England twice in that year's championship - but then a year later only scraping into the top six in order to qualify for Dubai, and only three weeks ago finished a disappointing second behind Spain in Malaga. Actually that is pretty typical for all French rugby teams, come to think of it. 

China qualified third from Asia. Normally a major power in Asian rugby they were on the end of a shock semi-final defeat at the hands of unheralded Thailand. Since then China finished a disappointing last in San Deigo, losing by a wide margin to Canada and the USA, though they did finish within two points of New Zealand.

So - should be Australia and France through... but maybe not?