Finland’s women and Israel’s men are heading into this week smiling after they won their respective Rugby Europe Conference sevens events in Andorra at the weekend.
And, as there are two tiers of Conference events on the men’s side of things it was Conference 1 that Israel won and, in Kosovo, Slovakia were winning the Conference 2 tournament to also leave them very happy.
In the Women’s Conference in Andorra, there were 11 teams competing and they were split into three pools to start with.
Finland showed their intent during that stage by winning three games from three to top Pool A with Israel, Luxembourg and Bosnia and Herzegovina behind them.
© Travis Prior
Slovakia were the pacesetters in Pool B and they also won three from three with Malta second in the section, Estonia third and Greece fourth.
Pool C had three teams in it and Latvia topped it with two wins from two with Bulgaria and Lithuania behind them.
Onto the knock-out stages then and, in the four quarter-finals, there were four pretty comprehensive wins.
First up Latvia defeated Estonia 47-7 before Israel kept a clean sheet and beat Bulgaria 41-0. In the bottom half of the draw, Slovakia were tested before getting past Luxembourg 28-12 and then Finland carried on along their merry way by defeating Malta 48-14.
The first semi-final was one of the ties of the tournament with both Latvia and Israel playing some great sevens before the former came out on top 24-19.
Finland would be Latvia’s final opponents after they got past Slovakia 26-7 in their last four tie.
In that final Finland then made sure of picking up the silverware by coming out on top 26-5.
© Travis Prior
Israel bounced back from their tough semi-final loss to edge past Slovakia 14-12 in the third/fourth place match while, after rankings matches and the like, Malta finished fifth, Bulgaria were sixth, Luxembourg were seventh, Estonia were eighth, Greece were ninth, Lithuania were 10th and Bosnia and Herzegovina were 11th.
The Men’s Conference 1 in Andorra featured nine teams and they were split into three pools to start with in Pool phase 1.
Luxembourg, Austria and Israel all won two from two to top Pool A, Pool B and Pool C respectively.
© Travis Prior
In Pool phase 2, the teams were again in three sections and were playing against different opponents.
Luxembourg and Israel again topped their sections while Cyprus topped Pool E. As well as these three teams and Austria, Andorra, Slovenia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Finland were the other nations competing.
After results were cumulated from the two Pool phases, we had our semi-finalists and, in the first last four tie, Austria defeated Luxembourg 22-10. Israel and Cyprus then played out a cracking tie before the former came through it 28-17.
Israel clearly took confidence from that showing because in the final they were even better and got past Austria 38-10 to lift the trophy. Both teams will compete together next season in Rugby Europe 7s Trophy Series.
© Travis Prior
Cyprus and Luxembourg played out a close third/fourth place match before the former came through it 17-12.
After rankings matches and the like, Andorra were fifth, Bulgaria were sixth, Serbia were seventh, Slovenia were eighth and Finland were ninth.
Finally, over in the Men’s Conference 2 event in Kosovo, eight teams were split into two pools of four to start with.
Gibraltar were on form in Pool A to win three games from three and top the section ahead of San Marino, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Slovakia were on similar form in Pool B to also win their three games with Estonia finishing second, Kosovo third and Greece fourth.
Estonia then gave Gibraltar a real shock in the first semi-final before the latter just came out on top 17-14. Slovakia then beat San Marino 26-12 to progress to the final against Gibraltar.
And it was the Slovakia squad who had more energy left for that final, making sure they would finish first in the event with a 26-7 win reaching the upper division for next season.
© Mergime Berisha
San Marino and Estonia played out a tight third/fourth place match before the former made sure of a 22-17 triumph.
After rankings matches, Montenegro finished fifth, Bosnia and Herzegovina finished sixth, Greece were seventh and Kosovo, the hosts, were eighth.
By Gary Heatly
