First day of Rugby 7 at European Games
Sunday was the first day of Rugby 7 at European Games. From the very beginning of the tournament it was very interesting.
Rugby sevens tournament at the 3rd European Games is held at the Henryk Reyman’s Municipal Stadium in Kraków, where the 2022 Rugby Europe Sevens Championship Series were also played.
In addition to fighting for European Games medals, Europe’s top teams will try to gain Olympic qualification for the 2024 Paris. The winner of the tournament automatically qualifies for the Olympic Games, while the second and third teams will go to an international repechage tournament. All medalists from the European Games will thus retain their chance to play at the world’s biggest sporting event in 2024.
From the first day of the tournament it was very interesting. Poland national women’s team, led by Janusz Urbanowicz, started from victory over Turkey 55:0, and in the second game beat Portugal 26:0. Also Great Britain, Spain and Belgium have won two games and it looks like that those four teams will be fight for medals.
During the men’s tournament Ireland and Great Britain showed that they came to Krakow for the gold with two spectacular victories each. Irish team beats Poland 66:0 and later also Italy 38:7. On theirs first game British team defeated 45:0 and on the evening session won with Lithuania 24:0. Georgia also had two wins, but had problems against both the Czech Republic and Belgium.
Monday’s clash between undefeated teams Great Britain and Portugal promises to be the most interesting.