2009 European Sevens Championship

The 2009 European Sevens Championship was a rugby sevens competition, with the final held in Hanover, Germany. It was the eighth edition of the European Sevens championship and was organised by rugby's European governing body, the FIRA – Association of European Rugby (FIRA-AER).[1]

2009 European Sevens Championship
Tournament details
Host nation GER
Dates11 July – 12 July
No. of nations13
Final positions
Champions Men:  Russia
Women:  England
Runner-up Men:  France
Women:  Spain
2008
2010

The tournament differed from the previous seasons event as the number of participating men's teams had been reduced from twelve to ten. Instead, a women's tournament was held alongside the men's, also consisting of ten teams. The men's tournament was won by Russia, while England took out the women's title.

Tournament history

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From 2002, FIRA, the governing body of European rugby, has been organising an annual European Sevens Championship tournament. A number of qualifying tournaments lead up to a finals tournament, which functions as the European championship and, in 2008, also as the qualifying stage for the Sevens World Cup.[1]

The first European Championship was held in 2002 in Heidelberg, Germany, and was won by Portugal, the team that won every men's championship since except 2007 and 2009, when Russia won. In 2003, the tournament was again held in Heidelberg and, in 2004, Palma de Mallorca, Spain was the host. From 2005 to 2007, Moscow was the host of the tournament.[1]

Hanover held the tournament for the first time in 2008 and did so again in 2009.[1] In 2010, the tournament will return to Moscow.

Finals stadium

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The 2008 and 2009 finals tournaments were held at the AWD-Arena in Hanover, home ground of the football club Hannover 96. The stadium holds 50.000 spectators, 43,000 of them on seats, the rest standing.[2]

Qualifying

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A qualifying competition was held for the men's teams, with points allocated according to final placings in each tournament. Each nation was required to play two qualifying tournaments.[3]

Ten teams qualified through the six qualifying tournaments, held at the following locations:

Location Country Date Winner Runner-up
Sopot Poland 16–17 May   Portugal   Poland
Athens Greece 23–24 May   France   Romania
Split Croatia 30–31 May   France   Italy
Odesa Ukraine 6–7 June   Russia   Moldova
Ostrava Czech Republic 6–7 June   Portugal   Spain
Moscow Russia 20–21 June   Italy   Moldova

Final standings

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These are the final standings of the tournament:

Place Men Women
1st   Russia   England
2nd   France   Spain
3rd   Italy   Netherlands
4th   Spain   Germany
5th   Georgia   France
6th   Moldova   Portugal
7th   Portugal   Russia
8th   Romania   Italy
9th   Germany   Sweden
10th   Poland   Moldova

References

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  1. ^ a b c d The 7s European Championship Hannover Sevens website, accessed: 4 June 2010
  2. ^ AWD-Arena - facts Hannover Sevens website - stadium information, accessed: 4 June 2010
  3. ^ Qualifiers for the Hannover Sevens 2009 Hannover Sevens website, accessed: 4 June 2010
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