(volles zitat, da weit in den kommentaren versteckt)

"Dear B Group Emerging Rugby Nations,

I just wanted to give you an update and some impressions of the A Group European Championships in Croatia following our wonderfully organised B Group one in Bosnia, thanks to Enes among others.

I had the pleasure of attending the A Group competitions with a reserve team I was asked to put together by the host with non-A group members/competitors in case of injuries incurred during the tournament.

The idea of a reserve team itself caused some commotion with some teams that had some reserve team members playing against them. Their participation seemed to threaten some A Group teams even though these players came from the B Group, unlike in Limoges where the reserve team was made up of top French players that didn’t make it into the national team. I am sure the issues this raised will lead to an assessment of whether or not we should have a reserve team that provides individual players to teams with injured players or weather we should simply be allowed to bring an extra 2 players of our own if we wish. In any case, I am sure this will be the topic of discussion at a future Stage on women’s rugby or 7’s rugby.

For the A Group this year’s reserve team was made up of 3 Hungarians, 2 from a club in Munich and 2 of us from Austria.

While we were there a few players from the Bosnian team came to check it out as well with their coach and with Senad who refereed many of our games in Zenica.

What we are all able to tell you is that the level of play in the A Group was not that far ahead of the B Group this year.

So either we have improved and begun “closing the gap” or they have regressed, but I think we have all improved a little!

I figure if things keep improving at our “bottom” level the FIRA will have to come up with a new system or conduct a new ranking soon, and this should be good news and shows that such investments of time and money in our Emerging Nations Training Camps and in coach trainings are beginning to pay off and show results.

I hope this helps you all keep your girls motivated and confident that they are making progress.

Please let them know that their progress has not gone unnoticed.

Even Pierre Villepreux mentioned that he noticed that the levels of play between A and B Groups were not that different this year.

I am confident that Finland and Malta will be able to climb the rankings if they keep playing the way they did in Bosnia and maintain their fighting spirit and determination of their last game against each other and I hope they will have the opportunity to do so.

From the A Group, Switzerland and Germany fought well to gain first and second place in their group as well. The French U20 team played beautiful 7’s rugby in most of their games, looked like they were having fun playing in all of their games and made it all look soooo easy until the semi-finals and finals where they seemed to be challenged a little more by their opponents.

All in all, it was nice to have had the opportunity to attend both the B and the A group tournaments. It was especially nice to attend the A Group as a non-competing nation and to enjoy full tournament days without the nervous stomach and performance pressure.

The organisation in Zenica was fantastic and will definitely be a tough act to beat in future.

Maybe one of our nations will make a bid for some of the next 7’s Euro Champs. We can definitely use Bosnia’s organisation as an example of how it can and should be done.

Zagreb worked hard toward a successful event as well, but they had both the men’s and the women’s 7’s events to concentrate on and could not focus on little details that Zenica was able to focus on making it all run smoothly and look all the more professional. I am sure most of us might have taken those details for granted but they require as much consideration and effort as the rest of the organisation.

In Zagreb it was quite clear that the men’s games were the priority but at the same time it was nice to see the men supporting their women’s teams and the women supporting their men’s teams between their respective games. Then we all had the opportunity to see the women’s and the men’s finals on one pitch.

I have spoken to players from many of your nations to get some random impressions and most would like to see the A and B Group championships in one location again.

I suppose we will have to come up with some suggestions or a proposal for this at some point but I’m sure Pierre Villepreux, our number one supporter of women’s rugby in Europe, is already coming up with a plan in this logical direction.

Hope you still have some pleasant memories of your 7’s Euro Champs and that you are all the more motivated to keep up the progress and to keep challenging each other in fair play on the pitch.

With kindest rugby regards always,

Renée

Your Emerging Nations Representative

PS: Don’t forget to check the FIRA site next week for details on this weekend’s top 10 competition in Lunel. Is anyone going to be there that can send us some feedback??

PS: I still owe you some impressions from the IRB Women’s Conference in London and when I am home long enough to unpack I will get to that as well, promise!! Also I will be collecting feedback from our ENTC II in Katowice, Poland to use as a basis for the next training camp and its possible venue/host nation.

www.womensrugby.at

Renée Marie Carmine-Jones

Women's Development Officer/Frauen Sportentwicklung

Austrian Rugby Union/Österreichischer Rugby Verband"

via rugbylife.blogger.ba (da stehen sicher noch mehr tolle sachen drin, aber wer kann schon bosnisch?)