After an excellent men’s tournament recently, now it is the turn of the women’s Rugby Europe Championship to take centre stage.
From this Saturday until April 18, reigning champions Spain, last year’s runners-up Netherlands, last year’s third placed team Portugal and last year’s Trophy winners who were promoted Belgium will battle it out to see who will be crowned champions.
Given that Spain played at last year’s Rugby World Cup in England, are ranked number 14 in the world and have dominated this event in recent times, they will start as the favourites in the four-team event in which the teams will play three games each.
We saw in the men’s event - when Portugal defeated Georgia in the final earlier this month - that favourites do not always come out on top though and that will give Netherlands, Portugal and Belgium who replaced Sweden hope.
Those three sides are ranked 17, 23 and 24 in the world respectively as a new cycle begins leading up to Rugby World Cup 2029 in Australia.
Belgium could not have been handed a trickier start as they make the step up though with a trip to Spain in round one.
The match is taking place at the El Cantizal Stadium in the Las Rosas area of Madrid at 4pm local time (3pm UTC) and Spain will be looking to put a marker down for the rest of the event.
In their opener last year, Spain were away to Portugal and were pushed all the way before coming through 19-7. They will be after a slicker start this time around while wary that Belgium will be keen to show right away that they belong at this level.
Spain won three from three to top the standings overall last season while, in the three-team Trophy, Belgium beat Germany 23-19 away from home and Finland 44-13 at home.
The second match in round one is Netherlands-Portugal on Sunday.
This one is being played at the National Rugby Center in Amsterdam at 1pm local time (11am UTC).
When these two sides met in the competition last year, Netherlands won 40-5 at the same venue.
Most of the action in that one last April came in the second half as, in the first, it took 30 minutes for any points to be posted on the board.
That was a try from winger Kika Mulling for Netherlands converted by stand-off Pleuni Kievit.
Breaking the deadlock seemed to give Netherlands a spring in their step because they went on to score a further 33 points after the break.
By the 50th minute they were 19-0 up with try number two coming from scrum-half Esmee Ligtvoet and then try number three coming from back-row Isa Prins with one converted by Kievit.
The one-way traffic continued and, by the time there was 12 minutes to go, it was 33-0 with replacement Gwen Van Der Schoot and Mulling adding further tries and Kievit converting them.
Full-back Daniela Correia scored a consolation try for Portugal, but, fittingly, the last word went to the Netherlands when winger Gaya Van Nifterik scored with Kievit converting to end it at 40-5.
After this weekend, round two of fixtures take place on April 11 following the Easter break with round three’s games on April 18.
You can watch both matches live on Rugby Europe TV
By Gary Heatly
