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.

England change sevens policy

A subtle change has been made to England's policy on sevens, which I slightly missed.

Last season a separate Sevens squad was announced - selected from the Guildford open sevens trials - which, it was said, would be only occasionally bolstered by players from the Elite squad. In practice this did not happen. After a couple of defeats in warm-up tournaments the Elite players quickly took over a larger and larger proportion of the team.

The reality of the situation has been acknowledged for next season with a slightly larger Elite squad being given responsibility for both England's 15s and 7s campaigns, while the squad selected from this year's Guildford trials is officially the "RFUW Sevens Development", and will play in domestic sevens tournaments this summer. Curiously no announcement has been made about who is in this squad (the elite squad was announced earlier this week).

Its a subtle change, but I am guessing may have something to do with the arrival of Barry Maddocks, who was already referring to last season's sevens squad as "development" in the lead-up to Amsterdam last weekend. It certainly seems to be a change in policy that has come about since his arrival - before the Guildford trials last month it was clearly said that successful trialists would be playing for England, not England Development.

Which is not to suggest for one minute that there is anything wrong with this - on the contrary it makes more sense this way - but you do wonder about the way the change has been slipped in like this.

A weekend at the London Sevens...

The biggest thing since the 2010 World Cup, and the first international women's sevens ever held in England, last weekend's IRB Women's Challenge at the London Sevens was an incredible occasion and experience - especially for the media representatives present (er... me and Alison Donnelly of ScrumQueens).

All the facts and figures are on ScrumQueens, but from what I saw and from discussions with players from many countries a few random thoughts and impressions about international women's rugby...

Kelly van Harskamp - a distracting interviewee (see below)

• Spain's main players were given a choice between 7s and 15s this season - all bar one chose 7s. No other country is quite as "democratic" - English and French players go and play where their coaches tell them!
• Spain are a very strong team (not playing in London) but one of their leading players told me that she believed that Spain have perhaps 20 international quality players (7s and 15s combined)
• French players told me how difficult it as for them as they 7s squad rarely play together - they have yet to develop an "automatic understanding" together... and it showed. They were very disappointed by their 8th in London.
• Girls rugby is growing in Netherlands. Player numbers are up 15% and some schools are offering the game.
• An official IRB ranking system based on the men's system should be in place by year end - once all nations have signed off on their acceptance on The List. The status of matches in tournaments will depend of tournament organisers (ie. FIRA, for instance), while for friendlies tests will be tests if both sides agree on the status.
• A calendar for women's XVs tours for up to 4 years ahead should be agreed this year.
• Brazil, Argentine, Columbia and Uruguay are very interested in expanding into XVs in the near future - but IRB are trying to ensure that they and other ambitious nations can walk before they run to ensure games are not cancelled etc.
• Trinidad are similarly hoping to break out of the Caribbean
• China's rugby sounds like a fragile soufflé - a thin crust of mainly students and elite players, but almost no club structure below it.
• "New" names to keep an eye on from outside the Usual Suspects - Paula Ishibashi (Brazil); Fan Wenjuan (China); Anna Yakoleva (Kazakhstan); Koletsa Gadu (South Africa). Paula and Anna especially - Anna was an extraordinary glint of sevens gold in a very 15s-y Kaz team. She can do everything - kicking, great handling, runs superb lines, fast, strong - and the loudest voice on the field. You KNOW when Anna is playing!
• All national coaches (and most national squads!) live up to national stereotypes. Without exception. If you want to party, follow the Brazilians. The happiest team with the wildest supporters are the Dutch (even before their wins). Portugal are fun to be with too. Americans and Canadians are very scientific with all kinds of American football-style Plays. And so on.
• Most women's teams plays 7s like its 15s. The Dutch are the big exception.
• Dutch players are all at least 6 inches taller than players from anywhere else - and if they can match their technical ability with a bit more power and strength they could be devastating.
• England players seem to have a level of media training akin to leading politicians.
• Dutch star player Kelly van Harskamp has the most amazing deep brown eyes which are incredibly distracting when you are trying to interview her.

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.

Herts 7s CANCELLED

For the first time the Herts 7s has had to be cancelled, due to waterlogged pitches at Tring. A great pity as it looked like being another great success with teams from all over the south of England taking part, and at least one England player on hand to give out prizes.

You won't be able to miss them

This is probably one of the few positives that can be said for the new Sevens kit that England have launched. Well, that and its better than the old one where, for some reason, it seemed we were trying to disguise ourselves as the Netherlands.

In addition, if the floodlights ever fail on a night game England will be able to play on and (I'm really struggling for positives now) its not as bad as Australia's "vomit green" affair.

And its really good to see Michaela Staniford involved in the launch - and wearing what I assume it the "first choice" shirt too.

But... what on earth is wrong with white? Why do you have to have different Sevens shirts - its not exactly likely that the sevens and fifteens teams will have to play each other.

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 announce seedings and draw for Hong Kong

Unusually the IRB have announced and explain their seedings for the IRB Women's Challenge, to be played in Hong Kong at the end of the month - in tournaments its normally possible to work out what the likely seedings were, but this is the first time I can remember its being made so clear.

The seedings are:

1. Canada
2. England
3. Australia
4. USA
5. Spain 
6. Netherlands
7. Brazil
8. China
9. Russia
10. Japan
11. Hong Kong
12. Tunisia

This all gives the following groups:

A: Canada, Brazil, Russia
B: England, China, Japan
C: Australia, Netherlands, Hong Kong
D: USA, Spain, Tunisia

Having three-team groups really builds the pressure as there is no margin for error, and nothing for coming second in the pool. Group winners will pay for the Cup, runners up for the Plate, and third places for the Bowl. While Canada and England have great draws that will given them semi-final places, there will be titanic battles elsewhere. Australia v Netherlands and USA v Spain - which are the opening games of the tournament - are going to be huge games with the losers severally disappointed as they will miss-out on playing for the cup. Brazil v Russia will also be massive as both will want to avoid playing in the third tier.

In fact, other than England and Canada, this is pretty tough to call, but if Kelly van Harskamp is back for the Dutch (and she was hinting that she might be) I think they could edge Australia, while I think Spain - who really have something to prove after being sidelined for London - will beat USA.

That would give us Canada v Netherlands and England v Spain in the Cup semis (fascinating battles), Russia v Australia and China v USA in the Plate (rather predictable!), and Brazil v Japan and Hong Kong v Tunisia in the Bowl.

We may have to get used to lots of Canada v England finals this year!

Scotland return to women's sevens after 15 years

Entries are growing for the fifth major women's rugby Sevens tournaments - Amsterdam Sevens.

The other four this year are USA Sevens in Las Vegas, plus the three IRB tournaments in Dubai, Hong Kong and the new London event. Amsterdam will be the final leg.

Canada are (needless to say) the current champions, and this year they will face (amongst others) the Netherlands, South Africa, Australia, England, Scotland, USA, and France - almost all of the world's major teams, plus the return of Scotland to women's international sevens for the first time for 15 years.

The tournament will be on June 15th and 16th.

An invitation to play for England

RFUW are opening up their national sevens trials to everyone.

Last year 85 women took part in the trials at Surrey Sports Park in Guildford, and the squad eventually selected included eight players with no previous experience of playing rugby in England. England then went on to win the European Sevens, and finish runners-up in Dubai.

Admittedly this seems to have been achieved by drafting in quite a few players from outside the official sevens squad - RFUW did seem to hit the panic button pretty hard when the new squad failed to achieve immediate success - but hopefully this time they may allow the squad to learn and grow. Although in the year that decides qualification for the Sevens World Cup...

Anyway, anyone interested has until 13th April to apply to take part in the trials. To submit your application go to https://secure.jotform.com/form/20522116373.

Third IRB women's sevens confirmed for London

Hardly a surprise this as its been trailed unofficially for months, but the London Sevens on May 12-13 will include a women's event for the first time.

The teams selected to play have been a cause of some comment...

Australia, England, Portugal, Netherlands, Russia, France, Canada, USA, Brazil, China, Kazakhstan, South Africa.

So... no Spain (no 2 in Europe) in Europe's main women's sevens - instead we have Portugal (no 6), Netherlands (no 3), Russia (no 4) and France (no 5). Does someone high up in women's rugby not like the Spanish or something (remembering the shabby way they were treated in the Six Nations as well)?

In practice, it looks like the IRB have a core list of six teams - Australia, England, Canada, USA, Brazil, China - with second tier of Netherlands, Russia, Spain and South Africa, which gets us quite close to the 12 for the first official series next season.

Herts Sevens 2012: Enter now!

Entries are now open for Herts Girls Sevens - the biggest and best junior club sevens... anywhere!

The tournament will be at Tring on 29th April. For more information go here.

Teams announced for second IRB Women's Challenge Cup

As the poster on the right reveals, the 12 teams for the second official IRB women's sevens will be...

• Australia (World champions)
• Brazil (South American champions)
• Canada (Winners in Dubai)
• China (Asian champions)
• England (European champions)
• Hong Kong (hosts)
• Japan (Asian no. 3)
• Netherlands (European no. 3)
• Russia (World Cup hosts, European no. 4)
• Spain (European no. 2)
• Tunisia (Africa North/West champions)
• USA (Las Vegas finalists)

How much we can read into this about the 12 who will take part in the women's "tour" that should start next season is debatable. South Africa - who were in Dubai - are not listed, either because they could not make it or because the IRB wanted to be fair and offer a place to another African team (who knows - but probably the former is more likely). Either way, they would be normally expected to be the strongest side on the continent. Their replacements, Tunisia, are the strongest side in the north of the continent - but have rarely played outside Africa before. It is unlikely they will be a major worry for the leading teams.

France - third in Las Vegas - are also absent, still paying for 15 minutes of madness against Portugal last summer. Russia take the fourth European spot as a result.

Similarly Hong Kong have a long history but, as Japan found in Las Vegas, will struggle to match the pace and stamina of the professional teams. All of the pro sides will be in Hong Kong - the inclusion of Netherlands is a step forward, though they will probably still be without Kelly van Harskamp, ScrumQueens leading sevens players of 2011.

In fact the tournament neatly divides itself down the middle into two groups - the "possibles" who could all, in theory, have a shout at at least a semi-final place - Australia, Canada, England, Netherlands, Spain and USA - and the rest who, realistically, will have their targets set on bowls and plates.

Las Vegas Sevens kicks off

Netherlands kicked-off the 2012 Las Vegas Sevens a couple of hours ago, with that amazing desert mountain backdrop. The first round of games went to form - Netherlands, USA and Canada winning fairly easily, and France sneaking home against Maple Leafs (worth watching the replay).

The second round of game kicks off at about 7pm UK time, while the crucial final pool games start at 10pm. Go here to watch live.

International Sevens ready to begin

While the Six Nations captures all the headlines (metaphorically of course - since when was the last time any women's rugby captured any real newspaper coverage?) major women's sevens teams are making their final preparations for the start of a vital year which lead up to qualification for next year's Sevens World Cup.

Six of the world's major teams will meet in Las Vegas next weekend, and at least one of them will be looking forward to a significant change of climate. Its been a bit nippy in the Netherlands over the past week - far more so than here - and this picture shows the world's only professional women's rugby team packing up and leaving. From -18 overnight, to +18 later today - quite a change!

Also taking part will be the USA, Canada, France, Brazil and Japan - as well as the US and Canadian second string teams.

New Zealand begin their Search for a Sevens team

Its a method of selection that (if this article is right) sounds closer to a prime-time reality TV than rugby, but New Zealand have begun their search for a 2016 Olympic Star.

80 hopefuls began today, who will be whittled down to 30. Then another cut a bit more before public trial game, after which they'll get the final squad. I think. When it is put like this you really do expect Graham Norton and Andrew Lloyd Webber to be involved...

In fact the guy in charge is one Sean Horan, who is a gifted coach, but could maybe learn to leave off on the patronising just a bit - "What I learnt most from the last week was that the female athletes take things on board very quickly and they are very intelligent when it comes to playing the game".

Perhaps its just reads worse than he meant...

Second Women's IRB Sevens to be announced

The second official IRB Women's Sevens will take place in Hong Kong between 23rd and 25th March.

There does not seem to have been any official announcement - yet - but Netherlands today announced that they have been invited to take part, which implies some changes to the structure of the tournament - probably to 12 teams - which is not a problem as the women's Hong Kong Sevens normally 12 or more teams.

Netherlands also announced that they have been invited to play in the London Sevens which is "almost sorted". We also know that Canada and France are intending to be there, so another 12 or more team event is presumably planned.

When the official announcement will be made is not yet known - at a guess they want to announce both events together - but clearly the IRB are making sure that all of the teams they want are ready to go when they do the big reveal.

If it is a 12 team event then ten of the teams are fairly obvious - Canada, England, Australia, Spain, Brazil, China, USA, South Africa, France, Netherlands. Quite who the others might be is more of a guess, but logically they would be "local" teams like Japan or maybe Fiji in Hong Kong, and maybe Wales and Scotland in London?

USA reach the semi-finals in Las Vegas

It may be a few weeks yet before the first big women's sevens kicks off (three to be exact), but it looks like the USA have made sure they get a place in the semi-finals this year after missing out in 2011. They'll probably play Netherlands.

The draw for the tournament finds the USA pitted against France (5th in Europe), Canada's development team (the Maple Leafs), and Japan (who have no sevens pedigree at all).

Meanwhile, in Pool B we find Canada (world no. 1), Brazil (S American no. 1), Netherlands (Europe No. 3), and USA's development team.

Admittedly it is the USA's own tournament, so they can pick it how they like, but even so its not subtle and its actually rather hard to see how they could have come up with a "better" draw. On the other hand some big USA wins on day one should get them some good local coverage, which is in the end pretty important.

Also interesting to note that there is a real chance that Canada could play Canada in the other semi-final, being as the Maple Leafs beat France in Dubai.

More on the "London Sevens"

Apparently the "London Sevens" is still unconfirmed. It is not an issue about a lack of teams - clearly several leading teams have already put the week aside in the diaries so keen are they to take part - but more an issue of the IRB recognising it.

RFUW certainly want it to take place, alongside the men's IRB London Sevens, as a second IRB-recognised event (after Dubai last year) - but everyone is waiting for the internal wheels at the IRB to grind their way forward (slowed as they are by the usual combination of funding and politics).

The only snag is clearly that time is running out... and teams may start to commit to alternatives (like Amsterdam) instead.

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.