2009 FIRA Women's European Trophy explained

2009 FIRA European Trophy
Type:women
Date:17 May 2009–
23 May 2009
Countries:






Matches:12
Top Scorer: Kelly van Harskamp (55 points)
Most Tries: Kelly van Harskamp (11 tries)
Preceded By:2008
Succeeded By:(Trophy) 2010

The 2009 FIRA tournament acted as Europe's 2010 World Cup qualifying tournament. The top four nations from the 2009 Six Nations had automatically qualified, but nations finishing fifth and sixth (Scotland and Italy) joined Spain, Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Germany, and Belgium to decide the final two places.

Format

The teams were divided into two pools, the "seeding" broadly based on FIRA rankings, with the pool winners qualifying:

After the completion of the pool phase, the tournament itself did not have a "final", nor any other classification games.

As expected, Scotland qualified from Pool A with no problems - but it always looked a tougher prospect for fellow Six Nations team Italy, in Pool B, as they would have to beat Spain - something they had never managed before. But when it came to the event neither Italy nor Spain were to qualify, but rather hosts and sixth seeds Sweden, who shocked everyone by first beating Italy and then Spain - in both cases coming from behind in the dying minutes of the game.

Other games in the tournament followed the seedings - and were embarrassingly one-sided in many cases - demonstrating the gulf that continues to exist between the leading eight or nine nations in Europe and the rest.

Pool A

PositionNationGamesPointsTable
points
PlayedWonDrawnLostForAgainstDifferenceTries
1 330019318+175309
2 320115238+114247
3 310229129-10055
4 300311200-18913

Pool B

PositionNationGamesPointsTable
points
PlayedWonDrawnLostForAgainstDifferenceTries
1 33006526+3999
2 32019218+74137
3 31026828+4095
4 30036159-15303

Point Scorers

Leading point scorers

PointsNamePlayedTeamNotes
55Kelly van Harskamp311 tries
45Lucy Millard39 tries
37Sarah Gill317 cons, 1 pen
32Lorraine Laros313 cons, 2 pens
26Laura Lladó31 try, 9 cons, 1 pen
25Charlotta Westin Vines35 tries
24Donna Kennedy34 tries, 2 cons
23Veronica Schiavon34 cons, 5 pens
20Cara D’Silva34 tries
15Ana Vanesa Rial23 tries
Susie Brown33 tries
Linda Franssen33 tries
Bárbara Pla33 tries

Other point scorers

14 points: Ulrika Andersson Hall (Sweden)
10 points: Natalia Alexeeva (Russia), Dorien Eppink (Netherlands), Veronica Fitzpatrick (Scotland), Silvia Peron (Italy), Isabel Rodríguez (Spain), Wikke Tuinhout (Netherlands), Paola Zangirolami(Italy)
8 points: Marina Apfel (Germany)
6 points: Marina Bravo (Spain), Claire Paris (Belgium)
5 points: Sara Barattin (Italy), Martina Barbini (Italy), Jessica Berntsson (Sweden), Marlieke Broer (Netherlands), Lana Blyth (Scotland), Emma Evans (Scotland), Lucia Gai (Italy), Elena Gamova (Russia), Tanya Griffith (Scotland), Sylke Haverkorn (Netherlands), Erin Kerr (Scotland), Madeleine Lahti (Sweden), Rebecka Lind (Sweden), Jennifer Lindholm (Sweden), Alexia Mavroudis (Netherlands), Paula Medín(Spain), Elke van Meer (Netherlands), Louise Moffat (Scotland), Suzi Newton (Scotland), Agurtzane Obregozo (Spain), Silvia Pizzati (Italy), Marta Pocurull (Spain), Aitziber Porras (Spain), Johanna van Rossum (Netherlands), Corinne Sailliez (Belgium), Maria Sanfilippo (Italy), Pien Selbeck (Netherlands), Elena Smirnova (Russia), Laura Steven (Scotland), Olga Sychugova (Russia)
4 points: Erika Andersson (Sweden), Anastasiya Mukharyamova (Russia)
2 points: Louise Dalgliesh (Scotland)

External links

See also