2nd World University Rugby 7 on 7 Championship
Rome, Italy - August 3rd to 6th, 2006
Confirmation
In this second edition of the World University Rugby 7 Championship, France and Canada were both defending their titles – and they weren’t going to miss the chance to outdo themselves.
The Italian University Sports Association (CUSI) was the one to take charge of organizing the second World University Rugby 7 Championship. The Roman branch (CUS Roma) specifically put its superb installations at the disposal of the teams. Italy traditionally has enormous experience in the organization of rugby meets. CUS Roma has brilliantly organized several international tournaments at top level in the past, such as the World Cup and the European University Rugby Cup. So quality was guaranteed... and it's true that this experience did wonders for our student athletes again this time. The 18 teams in the competition (13 men's teams and five women's) had nothing but praise for the organizers. By and large, rugby gives participants the feeling of attending a “family get-together" and the atmosphere off the field is always great. In Rome, the best teams were on very good terms with the most modest in a friendly spirit made warmer still because all the players were students.
One of the features of rugby sevens is that a tournament with this many teams can be played in a short period of time. The matches last 2 x 7 minutes with one minute halftime, and the Italian technicians developed a foolproof organization on two fields to stage 44 matches in just two days! The inaugural edition organized in Beijing in 2004 closed with France at the top for the men and Canada for the women. On the whole, the tournament was played at a very good level although there were some large gaps between the countries represented. This held true for the second edition too. In the men's tournament, there was no challenge to the superiority of the "Blues", as they rose to the to lead of their pools, along with Spain, Great Britain and South Africa. China also showed some very skilful play, surprising many observers.
The other teams, except for Italy, were all left behind. In the semi-finals, France had no trouble besting China which displayed some great athletic qualities but still never reached the tactical and technical excellence of its opponent. Great Britain faced Spain in the other semi-final. The match was a close one, but the British were able to keep the advantage they had taken in the beginning, and controlled the match very intelligently. For the ladies, the Canadian team was clearly the best. For that matter, no team was able to score a single point against them. Canada met the local team in the finals and the Italians, who managed to get in some very good play, were nevertheless undeniably outclassed.
The Finals
As we said, the Canadians were something of a nightmare in the women's tournament. And it came true in the finals. The Italians must have felt a bit lost as they tried to stop that steamroller. The match finished with a score of 21 to zero and a second title for Canada! At the end of the game, the Canadian coach Sue Chaulk, spilled over with pride and pleasure: "You know that the last time in Beijing, we only had one week to prepare. This year we picked the teams in November and trained the players intensively. We didn't reach this level by chance. And we hope to do it again in two years time in Cordoba."
In the men's final, Great Britain had only one solution against France: attacking, even if this meant giving the French an opportunity to slip through the holes. The job was harder than expected, the Blues controlled their game so well. The British seemed to be overwhelmed, and could do nothing but let it happen.
The match finished off with a one-sided score of 33 to10, and if the challengers left the final with the feeling of having done too little, the Blues, on the other hand, were bursting with pleasure as they happily took home their second consecutive title in homage to their great play. Jean-Louis Dessacs, the coach of the French team explains what makes "his guys" so strong: "Mindset is the team’s first asset; the players have great mental power and they play together. They always keep the ball moving among themselves, particularly when playing defence. Several times today, they fell behind, but that didn't stop them from turning the situation around. (...) I was quite surprised at the level of at least half of the teams that came to this championship. This is very encouraging for Rugby 7. For my part, I'm a great fan of university rugby and I'm very happy to see that Asian and African countries are improving the level of their game as we have seen. The Chinese, for example, have a lot of resources and are improving very fast – both men and women. I think that in a few years, we will have to vie with them for a place in the finals. (...) We will certainly be coming to Cordoba, Spain, in 2008. I think that if we have the means to let students take part in this kind of event, we certainly shouldn't miss the opportunity ". So we have a date ...
Organizing Committee
CUS Roma Viale Tor di Quinto 64 00194 Roma Italy Phone: ++(39.06) 3331961 Fax: ++(39.06) 33409896 e-mail: aqualtieri@iol.it URL: www.fisurugby2006.com
FISU Technical Chairman
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