The Rugby Europe Sevens Championship Series for women and men got underway for 2025 in Makarska, Croatia, at the weekend and Great Britain women and France men came out on top.
The Gradski Sportski Centar had hosted a Trophy sevens leg just a week before and the action at the venue continued thick and fast between Friday and Sunday.
In the 12-team women’s event, France, Germany and Poland topped the three pools and, interestingly, eventual winners Great Britain won just one out of three games in that phase.
In the last eight, France defeated Portugal 22-7, Czechia edged out Spain 21-15, Great Britain found their form to defeat Germany 33-5 and Poland showed they were a danger with a 33-0 win over Belgium.
France just got the better of Czechia 17-14 in the semis with Great Britain cranking things up another notch to see off Poland 33-7.
In the final, France took the lead with an unconverted try in the first half out wide by Camille Grassineau.
France then had a player yellow carded and Great Britain took advantage, Reneeqa Bonner scoring out wide and the conversion being successful from Rosie Inman as they led 7-5 at the break.
They then scored early in the second period via Charlotte Woodman and when the same player showed great pace to go over again - converted by Inman - it was 19-5.
France got a try back via Marie Dupouy, who also converted, but Great Britain held on to win 19-12. Katie Shillaker was awarded Player of the tournament.
Poland finished third by beating Czechia 17-0 with Spain fifth, Belgium sixth, Portugal seventh, Germany eighth, Ireland ninth, Swede 10th, Georgia 11th and Italy 12th.
In the 11-team men’s event, Spain, Belgium and Portugal topped the pools.
Belgium defeated Georgia 10-0 in the first quarter-final, then eventual champions France, who had finished second to Spain in Pool A, got the better of Germany 14-5.
Portugal defeated Czechia 17-12 in the next last eight tie with Spain then beating Italy 31-14 to seal their semi-final spot.
France were starting to find their form now and in the first last four tie they beat Belgium 22-5 before Spain just got the better of Portugal 7-5 after a very tight tie.
Simon Desert for France and Jeremy Trevithick of Spain swapped unconverted tries early in the final to leave things at 5-5.
Théo Forner’s try converted by Enahemo Artaud then put France 12-5 up and then some great offloading saw Artaud core a converted try himself to leave things at 19-5 at half-time.
Tom Leveque burst through a gap right after the break to score a try converted by Forner and France were 26-5 up and on the way to the title.
Leveque then went over again before Victor Hannoun ran in under the posts. Luca Mignot (player of the tournament) converted the latter and it was 38-5.
Spain never gave up though and score a late try via Eduardo Lopez Sanchez, converted by Jaime Mata Sanchez, to make it 38-12.
That was the way it finished and France thoroughly deserved the title while Belgium beat Portugal 17-12 to finish third.
Germany were fifth, Italy sixth, Georgia seventh, Czechia eighth, Great Britain ninth, Lithuania 10th and Sweden 11th.
The second leg of the Rugby Europe Sevens Championship Series for women and men is in Hamburg, Germany, between June 27 and 29.
Details and replays of the games are available on :
By Gary Heatly
