Rugby Europe Women's Championship

In rugby union, the Women's European Championship (or - as it is also known - the European Nations Cup and the European Trophy) is an international competition contested between women's national teams who are members of Rugby Europe (known from 1999 to 2014 as FIRA - Association of European Rugby, and FIRA before that). The competition has its origins in a four nation "European Cup" held in 1988 but did not become an official FIRA competition until 1995. The competition has grown significantly and is some years attracts sufficient entrants for it to be divided into two "Pools" (A and B) with the eight highest ranked entrants in any year (based on Rugby Europe rankings) in Pool A.

Rugby Europe Women's Championship

Sport	Rugby union
Founded	1988
No. of teams	19
Country	Belgium  Bosnia and Herzegovina  England  Finland  France  Germany  Ireland  Italy  Kazakhstan  Luxembourg  Netherlands  Norway  Romania  Russia  Scotland  Serbia  Sweden  Spain  Wales
Most recent champion(s)	England

Since 2000 only the winner of the tournament held in between the World Cups (every four years, as highlighted) is officially recognised "European Champions", although teams winning tournaments in other years are often unofficially also described as "European Champions". This can cause some confusion, not least because the structure of the four-yearly tournament is invariably identical to the annual event. To make identification easier the competitions in the four yearly cycle are highlighted.

The only major difference between the "official" European Championships and other tournaments is that in the latter, between 2001 and 2007, England and France tended not to send their full strength national squads to the competition - though until 2007 they still played as "England" or "France". This has resulted in some confusion about the status of games played by these nations - England do not consider their games to be full internationals (or "tests")[1] and do not award caps, whereas while France also do not give caps to their players in such matches, they do recognise the games as tests matches.[2] FIRA and all other competing nations consider all the games to be "tests".[3]

The 2009 tournament acted as Europe's qualification tournament for the World Cup (all entrants sending full strength squads), after which the test match status problem was finally resolved. From 2010 onwards it was announced [4] that the non-Championship tournaments would be known as the "European Trophy" and any Six Nations entrants would officially be "A" sides (though in 2010 Italy, as they had not qualified for the 2010 World Cup, entered their full strength squad).

Championship and "Pool A" tournaments

Year	Host		Final				Third place match
			Winner	Score	Runner-up		3rd place	Score	4th place
1988[5] Details	France		France	8 - 6	Great Britain		Netherlands	10-6	Italy
1995 Details	Italy		Spain	22 - 6	France		Italy	23 - 19	Netherlands
1996 Details	Spain		France	15 - 10	Spain		Italy	11 - 6	Netherlands
1997 Details	France		England	24 - 8	Scotland		Spain	25 - 8	France
1998			No tournament	due to	the 1998 World Cup		No tournament	due to	the 1998 World Cup
1999 Details	Italy		France	13 - 5	Spain		Scotland	15 - 13	England
2000 Details	Spain		France	31 - 0	Spain		England	40 - 20	Scotland
2001 Details	France		Scotland	15 - 3	Spain		England	34 - 23	France
2002 Details	Italy		Italy	35 - 24	Sweden		Germany	12 - 10	Netherlands
2003 Details	Sweden		Spain	16 - 10	France		Sweden	15 - 10	Italy
2004 Details	France		France	8 - 6	England		Scotland	11 - 10	Wales
2005 Details	Germany		Italy	22 - 3	Netherlands		Sweden	17 - 5	Germany
2006 Details	Italy		Italy	28 - 7	Netherlands		Russia	-	Sweden
2007 Details	Spain		England	27 - 17	France		Spain	37 - 0	Netherlands
2008 Details	Netherlands		England	12 - 6	Wales		Ireland	12 - 12 (try count)	France
2009 Details	Sweden		Sweden	Joint winners	Scotland		Netherlands	Joint third	Spain
2010 Details	France		Spain	31-13	Italy		Netherlands	47-19	Sweden
2011 Details	Spain		England A	5-3	Spain		France A	17-7	Italy A
2012 Details	Italy		England	29-25	France		Italy	54-3	Spain
2013 Details	Spain		Spain	WC QF	Samoa
2014 Details	Belgium		Netherlands	12-3	Belgium		Russia	34-21	Switzerland
2015 Details	Switzerland		Belgium	50-20	Switzerland		Russia	41-15	Czech Republic
2016 Details	Spain		Spain	35-7	Netherlands		Russia	74-5	Belgium
2017			No tournament	due to	the 2017 World Cup		No tournament	due to	the 2017 World Cup
2018 Details	Belgium		Spain	40-7	Netherlands		Germany	24-5	Belgium
2018–19 Details			Czech Republic	Round robin	Switzerland		Finland
2019 Details			Spain	54-0	Netherlands		Russia	22-5	Germany

Performance of nations

All tournaments

Teams reaching the top four

Team	Titles	Runners-up	Third place	Fourth place
Spain	7	5	2	2
France	5	4	1	3
England	5	1	2	1
Italy	3	1	3	4
Netherlands	1	5	3	4
Scotland	1	2	3	1
Sweden	1	1	2	2
Belgium	1	1		2
Czech Republic	1			1
Switzerland		2		1
Wales		1		1
Great Britain		1
Samoa		1
Russia			5
Germany			2	2
Ireland				1
Finland				1

Official FIRA tournaments

1.  France - 4 titles, 3 runners-up, 1 third, 3 fourths
2.  England - 4 titles, 1 runner-up, 2 thirds, 1 fourth
3.  Spain - 3 titles, 5 runners-up, 3 thirds
4.  Italy - 3 titles, 1 runner-up, 2 thirds, 2 fourth
5.  Scotland - 2 titles, 1 runner-up, 2 thirds, 1 fourth
6.  Sweden - 1 title, 1 runner-up, 2 thirds, 2 fourth
7.  Netherlands - 2 runners-up, 2 third, 4 fourths
8.  Wales - 1 runner-up, 1 fourth
9.  Germany - 1 third, 1 fourth
10.  Russia - 1 third
11.  Ireland - 1 third

"European Championships"

1.  France - 5 titles, 1 runner-up, 2 fourths
2.  England - 2 titles, 1 runner-up, 1 third, 1 fourth
3.  Spain - 1 title, 3 runners-up, 1 third
4.  Scotland - 1 runner-up, 2 thirds, 1 fourth
5.  Wales - 1 runner-up, 1 fourth
6.  Great Britain - 1 runner-up
7.  Italy - 2 thirds
8.  Netherlands - 1 third, 2 fourths
9.  Ireland - 1 third

"Pool B" tournaments

Year	Host		Final				Third place match
			Winner	Score	Runner-up		3rd place	Score	4th place
2000 Details	Spain		French Flanders	Pool	Netherlands		Germany
2001 Details	France		Sweden	Pool	Netherlands		Germany	Pool	Belgium
2003 Details	Netherlands		Netherlands	19 - 12	Germany		Norway	10 - 10 (penalties)	Denmark
2004 Details	France		Netherlands	Pool	Germany		Norway	Pool	Denmark
2005 Details	Bosnia and Herzegovina		Russia	Pool	Norway		Bosnia and Herzegovina
2007 Details	Belgium		French Universities	13 - 7	Belgium		Germany	15 - 0	Romania
2008 Details	Netherlands		Russia	31 - 14	French Defence		Germany	19 - 15	Belgium
2012 Details	Sweden		Sweden	10 - 3	Netherlands		Russia	45 - 17	Finland

Performance of nations

1.  Netherlands - 2 titles, 3 runners-up
2.  Russia - 2 titles, 1 third
3.  Sweden - 2 titles
4. French Flanders - 1 title
5. French Universities - 1 title
6.  Germany - 2 runners-up, 4 thirds
7.  Belgium - 1 runner-up, 2 fourths
8.  Norway - 1 runner-up, 2 thirds
9. French Defence - 1 runner-up
10.  Bosnia and Herzegovina - 1 third
11.  Belgium - 2 fourths
12.  Finland - 1 fourth
13.  Romania - 1 fourth

See also

• Women's international rugby

References

2. See statistical data on the French RFU website
3. As detailed in reports on the various national websites
4. See [2010 Women's European Trophy] for details
5. This tournament was not run by FIRA

External links

• Rugby Europe website