Rugby Europe Women's Sevens

The Rugby Europe Women's Sevens, previously the FIRA–AER Women's Sevens until 2013, is a series of regional championships for women's international rugby sevens in Europe. Prior to 2012, the annual tournament is held over two days, typically on a weekend in June, before the highest category tournament was reorganized as the Sevens Grand Prix Series, modeled after the format of the World Rugby Sevens Series. The tournaments are sanctioned and sponsored by Rugby Europe.

Rugby Europe Women's Sevens
Current season, competition or edition:
2019 Rugby Europe Women's Sevens Grand Prix Series
SportRugby sevens
Founded2003
Countries12 (in 2018)
Most recent
champion(s)
 Russia (6th title)
Most titles England
 Russia
(6 titles)

History

The championship Trophy beside the ball of the 2015 edition.

Rugby sevens — also known as 7-a-side, or 7s — is a short form of the sport of rugby union that was first played in 1883. The first (men's) internationals took place in 1973. As women's rugby union developed in the 1960s and 1970s the format became very popular as it allowed games, and entire leagues, to be developed in countries even when player numbers were small, and it remains the main form the women's game is played in most parts of the world.

However, although the first women's international rugby union 15-a-side test match took place in 1982, it was not until 1997 before the first women's international 7s tournaments were played, when the 1997 Hong Kong Sevens included a women's tournament for the first time. Over the next decade the number of tournaments grew, with almost every region developing regular championship competitions. This reached its zenith with 2009's inaugural women's tournament for the Rugby World Cup Sevens, shortly followed by the announcement that women's rugby sevens will be included in the Olympics from 2016.

The first official regional 7s championship for international women's teams from European was the European Women's Sevens Championship held in 2003 in Lunel, France. Since then, the regional 7s championships have periodically served as pre-qualifying competitions for the Rugby 7s World Cup, or other sevens tournaments.

The following are details of all regional women's international championships played in Europe, listed chronologically with the earliest first, with all result details, where known (included are the FIRA–AER Women's Sevens and other official regional championships, e.g. the Europe Emerging Nations tournaments).

Top division

Results by year

Year Place Champions Runners-up Third
2003 Lunel Spain France  Switzerland
2004 Limoges England Italy France
2005 Lunel England Spain Netherlands
2006 Limoges Wales England Netherlands
2007 Lunel France England Spain
2008 Limoges England Netherlands Russia
2009 Hanover England Spain Netherlands
2010 Moscow Spain Netherlands France
2011 Bucharest England Spain Netherlands
2012Multiple England Spain France
2013Multiple Russia England France
2014Multiple Russia France England
2015Multiple France Russia Spain
2016Multiple Russia France Ireland
2017Multiple Russia Ireland France
2018Multiple Russia France Ireland
2019Multiple Russia France Ireland
2020 Series not played because of COVID-19 pandemic.
2021TBD

Team records

Team Champions Runners-up Third
 England 6 (2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012) 3 (2006, 2007, 2013) 1 (2014)
 Russia 6 (2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019) 1 (2015) 1 (2008)
 France 2 (2007, 2015) 4 (2003, 2014, 2016, 2018) 5 (2004, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2017)
 Spain 2 (2003, 2010) 4 (2005, 2009, 2011, 2012) 2 (2007, 2015)
 Wales 1 (2006)
 Netherlands 2 (2008, 2010) 4 (2005, 2006, 2009, 2011)
 Ireland 1 (2017) 2 (2016, 2018)
 Italy 1 (2004)
  Switzerland 1 (2003)

Lower divisions

Division A / Trophy

Year Host Champions Runners-up Third
2013 Prague  Belgium  Sweden  Czech Republic
2014 Bergen  Ukraine  Scotland  Romania
2015 Kaunas  Belgium  Finland  Sweden
2016 Multiple  Sweden  Poland  Scotland
2017 Multiple  Scotland  Germany  Ukraine
2018 Multiple  Netherlands  Ukraine  Sweden
2019 Multiple  Germany  Romania  Czech Republic
2020 Series not played because of COVID-19 pandemic.
2021 TBD

Division B / Conference

Year Host Champions Runners-up Third
2013 Bratislava  Finland  Norway  Israel
2014 Vilnius  Hungary  Lithuania  Israel
2015 Zagreb  Denmark  Israel  Croatia
2016 Sarajevo  Latvia  Malta  Turkey
2017 Košice  Norway  Austria  Georgia
2018 Zagreb  Georgia  Turkey  Croatia
2019 Zagreb  Moldova  Denmark  Austria
2020 Series not played because of COVID-19 pandemic.
2021 TBD

References

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