10 of the biggest moments from 2015

In a tournament that was occasionally short on quality ?? the absence of high quality backs to sevens had a definite impact ?? there was no shortage of storylines in this year??s tournament. Ireland??s second ever title came about the hard way after a loss to a dogged French side with the power going out halfway through the game; Wales beat England for the first time since 2009 with a fine display at home and England too with three losses provided their own drama as they struggled to rebuild from the World Cup. But it??s Italy??s story which makes our list. No longer propping up the Six Nations table, the Azzurri finished a best ever season in third place?˜after an impressive 22-5 win over Wales in Padua in the final game to back up their brilliant win over France. Success has been a long time in the making as told us but smarting from their non-qualification for the 2014 World Cup, this year is season that should be a turning point in the history of Italian women's rugby.

Just 14 months after being diagnosed with cancer, Jillion Potter??s return to the USA team in Dubai this month is one of the most remarkable stories of the year. Making her comeback so soon was quite something but she went one further and did so?˜as captain of the team, with the 29 year old embodying all of the fighting spirit that had marked her out as one of the key players in the USA side in previous seasons, especially the year before where she was in fine form. She was diagnosed in September 2014 with a cancerous tumour but she was back training in April after 18 weeks of chemotherapy and two months of radiation, always with an eye on Rio and making the USA squad for the Olympics. In a sport which is often caught up in?˜hyperbole, Potter??s story is one of real inspiration.

As journalists, we??re often guilty of heightening up ??shock?? wins but there??s no other way to describe Colombia??s brilliant three-day showing in South America??s qualifier, a tournament where they had only twice reached the final and the most recent of these was in 2010.?˜ In an unbeaten run, they beat hosts and clear favourites Argentina. Generally Colombia had tended to finish outside the top three of this competition but, increased investment and arrival of coach David Jaramillo has seen some dramatic improvements including second place to Argentina in Pan Am Games qualifier in January (Brazil had qualified automatically). Even so - although they were spoken of as being a team who might cause a few problems - no-one suggested that they might whitewash the opposition.?˜ A brilliant effort.

The Dutch sevens programme has always fascinated, not just because in 2012 their players became the world??s first ever contracted professionals, but because theirs was also the prototype of how sevens really was a game for everyone and not just the powerhouse nations of rugby. In losing to Portugal in this summer??s European Repecharge, they became the first big-name casualty on the Road to Rio. It had started well and with the generous sponsorships deals that the players were involved in winning, for a while they looked strong contenders for an Olympic place. They perhaps peaked too early, arguably in 2012 when they reached the final at the London Sevens, and never really recovered from being relegated from the World Series after the first season. The Dutch suffered from the ball not tending to bounce their way in vital games, and the loss of key players over the past year did not help their cause. The question is where they go next. Chris Lane, the head coach, ended his duties?˜over the summer and funding inevitably will dry up for the next year at least.

Ireland??s growth and success over the past decade has sometimes had a whiff of in spite of the support from their union rather than because of it, but the tide has strongly changed over the past few years and none more so than in 2015. With news that Ireland are to host the 2017 World Cup, there was also news that Ireland??s 6 Nations games would move from the popular but limited Ashbourne location to the much more suited Donnybrook from next season. Then Ireland played host to this summer??s World Series qualifier before announcing recently that it would also host the final Rio qualifiers next year. Added to the commitment to its fulltime sevens programme, the support from Ireland??s union and its public has hit new heights and with it is coming success at test level?˜ - and the IRFU hope next summer, at Olympics level if home advantage will count during the qualifiers. It??s about time.

Qualifying for Rio was expected as part of Fiji??s progression in 2015 but the appointment of former England sevens captain Chris as the country??s new director of women??s rugby back in September and head coach, was a turning point for a team who have always had the talent but sometimes lacked in the fitness and resources?˜to really make an impact. It took them just one game in Dubai to show their potential with their 24-10 win over powerhouses Canada providing one of the shocks of the day before they went on to beat Ireland and USA to top the pool.?˜ Losing to France in the final play before running out of steam against New Zealand perhaps dragged them back to reality, but there is no doubt that a fit, firing and well coached Fiji side will be a massive threat heading into an Olympic year ?? a medal is by no means out of the question.One of the oldest women's rugby nations, Japan were being overtaken by other Asian nations until the Japanese Union took over the management of, and began investing in, the national women's team. It's taken a few years to have an effect, but 2015 is when it all came together. First, in May, Japan beat 15s powerhouse Kazakhstan - who had never previously lost to Asian opposition - on the way to their first Asian 15s title. Their sevens squad (with many of the same players) then went onto Dublin to win the World Series qualifier before this adding the Asian 7s championship and then finally last month completed a clean sweep by winning Asia's place in the Rio Olympics. A truly remarkable year.Are women's teams better off standing alone, or as part of a bigger (and inevitably male dominated) club? The advantages of the latter are many and obvious, but when it goes wrong it can go wrong spectacularly. Never more so than this summer when the most successful French women's team ever - which started out as a standalone women's team before merging with the larger, professional, USA Perpignan - was destroyed in a matter of weeks when new managers, appointed by the club, first replaced their coaching team (without any consultation) and then, when hit with a tidal wave of opposition, refused to listen, compromise or back down. Indeed the more the players objected, the more the management dug in their heels. The result was an unedifying slow-motion car crash as players first refused to attend training in protest, and then (when this had no effect) started to resign from the club. Perpignan then had no team to play in the Top 8 - a competition where they had reached the semi-finals in the previous season - and were forced to default. Would this have happened if the team had not joined USAP? Probably not. Could they have reached the heights they did without the coaching and other resources of USAP? Impossible to say. Would this have happened with one of USAP's men's teams? Unlikely - but they are French!

This year??s World Series takes place over 5-legs, one less than last season, and in the end one more than originally announced with the French union coming to the rescue and hosting the fourth leg of the tournament. The news was a surprise, and has seen numerous players including Canada??s Ghislaine Landry and Australia??s Alicia Quirk openly express frustration but more broadly it threw up lots of questions about the future of the series, which we explore. That the series is here to stay is not in doubt but there are interesting questions to be answered about its format, even with the expectation that Australia is set to be added to the roster next season alongside the Sydney 7s.?˜Are we moving to a series which is predominantly going to sit side by side with the men??s series venues or did Canada show the way with their model, which sold out, albeit at a smaller ground? Post Olympics it will be fascinating to see what??s next for a series still in its infancy.

We reported last month that women??s rugby had begun in Mongolia, following on from coverage we??d given to the development of women??s rugby in Cambodia, India, Pakistan and (most recently) Iceland. At present rugby in Mongolia?? for both men and women ?? seems confined to the capital, Ulan Bator, where we hear that they have at least one field laid out for the game but the game is growing healthily in territories like UAE, Oceania and elsewhere too.

?˜