Biggest ever Euro 7s planned

Photo: France, Champions in 2015 (Le Monde)

The three-division European Sevens Championship has been expanded to include at least 39 national teams, with Division A joining the Top 12 Grand Prix as a two-leg tournament.

TheTop 12 “Grand Prix”will be played before and after the Olympics, with the first leg in Kazan (Russia) on 11/12 June and the second leg in Brive-Malemort (France) on 24/25 September. As werevealed a couple of months ago, in the first leg at least, England and Wales will be replaced by “Great Britain I and II”, with the tournament points for GB I crediting to England, and GB II to Wales. The draw for Kazan remains as initially announced:

Pool A: France (1), Netherlands (6), Great Britain 2 (7); Finland (12)Pool B: Russia (2); Ireland (5); Italy (8); Belgium (11)Pool C: Spain (3); Great Britain 1 (4); Ukraine (5); Portugal (10)

TheDivision Atournament (now officially the“European Trophy”) will also be played over two legs, with the first leg in Ricany (Czech Republic), and the second leg in Estergom (Hungary). The two venues are about five hours drive apart and the original announcement had the tournaments scheduled a week apart with the first leg starting on the 2nd July (presumably as way to reduce the costs faced by some of the smaller unions involved). However it appears that the first leg in Ricany will now be on 18/19 June, with the Estergom leg unchanged. It is not a change that will have a major impact on most of the central and eastern European participants, and may help with player recovery, but could prove to be very challenging financially for the other small unions, such as Israel and Norway, who will now be faced with two long return flights now instead of one.

The draw for the first leg in Ricany is as previously announced:

Pool A: Scotland (1); Switzerland (6); Czech Republic (7); Israel (12)Pool B: Germany (2); Poland (5); Norway (8); Denmark (11)Pool C: Sweden (3); Romania (4); Hungary (5); Moldova (10)

Division B(now known as the “European Conference”) tournament remains a single leg but has been expanded from 12 to 16 teams (15 national sides plus a “Balkan Select”), allowing just about every nation to take part in the championship for the first time – with the absence of Greece, who have an active women’s team and have run the popular Athens Sevens for the past couple of years. There is no explanation for their non-participation, but it may be simply due to finance.

The tournament will be held in Zenica (Bosnia-Herzegovina) on 23/24 July, and the draw is:

Pool A: Georgia, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Balkan SelectPool B: Lithuania, Bulgaria, Serbia, SlovakiaPool C: Croatia, Malta, Austria, AndorraPool D: Latvia, Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro

Finally, the venue of theUnder 18 Championshiphas also been announced. This 16-team tournament will now be held in Vichy (France) on 10/11 September. The draw is almost as previously announced, but with Andorra now replacing Japan in Pool A:

Pool A: England (1); Italy (8); Ukraine (9); Andorra (16)Pool B: Spain (2); Wales (7); Sweden (10); China (15)Pool C: Germany (3); Ireland (6); Russia (11); United States (14)Pool D: Portugal (4); Netherlands (5); France (12); Canada (13)