Latvia win European Conference

Latvia celebrate their win at the end of the final

Its 10,000km from Sarajevo to Rio, and the last international sevens tournament before the Olympics was a world away from the high-profile ramatazz that can be expected at the Deodoro Stadium in barely a fortnight’s time. But for the sixteen teams in Sarajevo this weekend this was their Olympics – the event they had been preparing for all year.

As we suggested in ourpreview, this is remarkably unpredictable competition, which makes the seeding and pool draws particularly difficult. This year the teams in Pool C were particularly competitive, with Andorra ending up bottom of the heap, behind Croatia and Austria, despite having a tidy side. Austria or Andorra might well have made the last eight if drawn in another pool. Malta were particular impressive winning all three games in that group.

Elsewhere in Pool B the weakened Lithuania team came back from an early pummelling from Slovakia to very nearly make the last eight, just falling to Bulgaria who joined Slovakia in the quarters. Pools A and D followed the seeding committee’s predictions, Georgia, Luxembourg, Turkey and Latvia all being too strong for their pool opponents.

On Day two the Pool C teams demonstrated their strength, winning three of their four game in the Cup and Plate, Andorra and Austria winning in the Plate and Malta in the cup. Only Croatia missed out, falling to the impressive Slovakia. Unpredictability also continued with the tournament’s top seed, Georgia, falling to Turkey.

With everything being decided on a single tournament, and two promotion places, the semi-finals in the Conference are arguably more important than the final, and this event produced two super-tense games between well-matched teams. In the first game a Turkish yellow card was probably the difference between them and Latvia, who came from behind at half-time to win 12-10. Then Malta survived almost 14 continual minutes of on-the-line defence, but allowed Slovakia only a single try while breaking away twice to score two and win 14-7.

Both finalists had been relegated from the second tier despite finishing 9th and 10th in 2012 due to the entry of Ireland, Wales and Scotland into the championship in 2013, so there is some justice in seeing them back at the level they had occupied since 2006 (in the case of Malta) and 2007 (for Latvia).

The final took place after a spectacular rainstorm that resulted in the third-place game between Turkey and Slovakia being halted for around 20 minutes. Although the rain had stopped by the time Malta and Latvia came out, the soaked pitch and wet ball did like to aid handling, contributing to a disappointing final. Latvia coped with the conditions better, with Malta spent most of the game in their own half. Three tries, two early in the second half, were too much for Malta to recover from, though they did finally cross the line right at the end.

Pool A: Georgia 24-0 Balkan Select VII; Luxembourg 32-0 Slovenia; Luxembourg 51-0 Balkan Select VII; Georgia 14-5 Slovenia; Slovenia 41-0 Balkan Select VII; Georgia 26-5 Luxembourg

Pool B: Lithuania 0-45 Slovakia; Bulgaria 31-0 Serbia; Bulgaria 10-36 Slovakia; Lithuania 34-0 Serbia; Serbia 0-52 Slovakia; Lithuania 5-10 Bulgaria

Pool C: Croatia 34-5 Andorra; Malta 41-5 Austria; Malta 34-12 Andorra; Croatia 10-21 Austria; Austria 7-17 Andorra; Croatia 0-24 Malta

Pool D: Latvia 40-0 Montenegro; Turkey 55-0 Bosnia & Herzegovina; Turkey 41-5 Montenegro; Latvia 50-0 Bosnia & Herzegovina; Bosnia & Herzegovina 7-22 Montenegro; Latvia 12-7 Turkey

Cup quarter-finals:Georgia 0–24 Turkey; Latvia 39–0 Bulgaria; Malta 48–0 Luxembourg; Slovakia 17–0 Croatia

Cup semi-finals:Turkey 10–12 Latvia; Malta 14-7 Slovakia

Cup final:Latvia 15-7 Malta

3rdplace:Turkey 19-5 Slovakia

Plate semi-finals:Georgia 17–0 Bulgaria; Luxembourg 15-10 Croatia

Plate final (5thplace):Georgia 22-10 Luxembourg

7thplace:Bulgaria 0–17 Croatia

Bowl quarter-finals:Slovenia 20-5 Bosnia & Herzegovina; Austria 47–0 Serbia; Montenegro 29-5 Balkan Select VII; Lithuania 0–32 Andorra

Bowl semi-finals:Slovenia 5–20 Austria; Montenegro 5–22 Andorra

Bowl final (9thplace):Austria 5-0 Andorra

11thplace:Slovenia 5-0 Montenegro

Shield semi-finals:Bosnia & Herzegovina 21–7 Serbia; Balkan Select VII 15-20 Lithuania (AET)

Shield final (13thplace):Bosnia & Herzegovina 5-17 Lithuania

15thplace:Balkan Select VII 5-12 Serbia