Ukraine’s women and Switzerland’s men were in fine form at the weekend to win the Makarska round of the Rugby Europe Trophy Sevens Series.
Twelve women’s and 12 men’s teams were in Croatia’s vibrant coastal town between Friday and Sunday trying to get their respective campaigns off to flying starts.
With just this event and then round two of action in Moldovan capital Chisinau later in the month deciding the two best sides winning a ticket to the Championship level, every tie matters and that was clear over recent days with some great sevens on show.
In the women’s pool phase in Croatia, Italy topped Pool A followed by Norway, Switzerland and the host nation while, in Pool B, Georgia finished top with Moldova, Romania and Montenegro following behind.
Italy and Georgia both won three matches out of three in those pools mentioned and, in Pool C, Ukraine did the same to finish ahead of Hungary, Austria and Andorra.
In the first quarter-final Italy won quite comfortably 29-12 versus Austria before Hungary battled past Norway 15-10. Ukraine then really showed that they were a team to watch by dispatching Switzerland 43-0 before Moldova shocked Georgia with a 14-5 win.
Italy and Ukraine were looking to two teams most likely to get to the final and that proved to be the case when they beat Hungary 26-5 and Moldova 33-0 respectively in the semis.
Ukraine had played well up to that stage, but they knew they would have to find an even better showing to get past Italy in the final and they managed just that to come out on top 24-10 and lift the silverware.
Moldova dusted themselves down after their last four loss to take bronze by defeating Hungary 19-5 in the third/fourth game.
After rankings matches, Norway finished fifth, Georgia sixth, Austria seventh, Switzerland eighth, Romania ninth, Montenegro 10th, Andorra 11th and Croatia 12th.
In the men’s event, three teams won three out of three in the pool phase just like had happened in the women’s competition.
Pool A was won by Switzerland followed by Croatia, Sweden and Malta, Pool B was topped by Romania with Monaco, Denmark and Moldova following them and Türkiye were the Pool C winners with Hungary second, Norway third and Latvia fourth.
Quarter-final one saw Romania defeat Denmark 33-14 followed by Monaco getting the better of Hungary 14-5. In the bottom part of the draw, Switzerland cranked things up to defeat Sweden 40-0 and signal their intentions for the knock-out phase while Türkiye battled to get past the hosts Croatia 14-5.
Romania and Monaco then played out one of the ties of the tournament which was back and forth before the latter eventually won 26-21 in the semi-final.
Switzerland were at their efficient best to get past Türkiye 22-5 in the second semi to progress to the final.
And, in that final, they were even better, defeating Monaco 29-0 to lift the trophy.
Romania would have been gutted by the nature of their last four loss to Monaco, but they bounced back to clinch third place by beating Türkiye in the third/fourth game 24-10.
After rankings matches, Sweden finished fifth, Denmark sixth, Hungary seventh, Croatia eighth, Latvia ninth, Norway 10th, Malta 11th and Moldova 12th.
Roll on Chisinau…
By Gary Heatly
Images: FotoBriza
