2009 European Sevens Championship

The 2009 European Sevens Championship was a rugby sevens competition, with the final held in Hanover, Germany. It was the eighth edition of the European Sevens championship and was organised by rugby's European governing body, the FIRA – Association of European Rugby (FIRA-AER).[1]

2009 European Sevens Championship
Tournament details
Host nation GER
Dates11 July – 12 July
No. of nations13
Champions Men:  Russia
Women:  England
← 2008
2010 →

The tournament differed from the previous seasons event as the number of participating men's teams had been reduced from twelve to ten. Instead, a women's tournament was held alongside the men's, also consisting of ten teams. The men's tournament was won by Russia, while England took out the women's title.

Tournament history

From 2002, FIRA, the governing body of European rugby, has been organising an annual European Sevens Championship tournament. A number of qualifying tournaments lead up to a finals tournament, which functions as the European championship and, in 2008, also as the qualifying stage for the Sevens World Cup.[1]

The first European Championship was held in 2002 in Heidelberg, Germany, and was won by Portugal, the team that won every men's championship since except 2007 and 2009, when Russia won. In 2003, the tournament was again held in Heidelberg and, in 2004, Palma de Mallorca, Spain was the host. From 2005 to 2007, Moscow was the host of the tournament.[1]

Hanover held the tournament for the first time in 2008 and did so again in 2009.[1] In 2010, the tournament will return to Moscow.

Finals stadium

The 2008 and 2009 finals tournaments were held at the AWD-Arena in Hanover, home ground of the football club Hannover 96. The stadium holds 50.000 spectators, 43,000 of them on seats, the rest standing.[2]

Qualifying

A qualifying competition was held for the men's teams, with points allocated according to final placings in each tournament. Each nation was required to play two qualifying tournaments.[3]

Ten teams qualified through the six qualifying tournaments, held at the following locations:

Location Country Date Winner Runner-up
Sopot Poland 16–17 May  Portugal  Poland
Athens Greece 23–24 May  France  Romania
Split Croatia 30–31 May  France  Italy
Odessa Ukraine 6–7 June  Russia  Moldova
Ostrava Czech Republic 6–7 June  Portugal  Spain
Moscow Russia 20–21 June  Italy  Moldova

Final standings

These are the final standings of the tournament:

Place Men Women
1st  Russia  England
2nd  France  Spain
3rd  Italy  Netherlands
4th  Spain  Germany
5th  Georgia  France
6th  Moldova  Portugal
7th  Portugal  Russia
8th  Romania  Italy
9th  Germany  Sweden
10th  Poland  Moldova

References
  1. The 7s European Championship Hannover Sevens website, accessed: 4 June 2010
  2. AWD-Arena - facts Hannover Sevens website - stadium information, accessed: 4 June 2010
  3. Qualifiers for the Hannover Sevens 2009 Hannover Sevens website, accessed: 4 June 2010
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