The 2008 European Sevens Championship was a

rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

competition, with the final held in

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

, Germany. It was the seventh edition of the European Sevens championship and also functioned as a qualifying tournament for the

2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens The 2009 Rugby sevens World Cup was the fifth edition of the Rugby World Cup Sevens. The International Rugby Board (IRB) selected Dubai in the United Arab Emirates as the host venue for the tournament ahead of bids from four other countries. The f ...

. The event was organised by rugby's European governing body, the

FIRA – Association of European Rugby Rugby Europe is the administrative body for rugby union in Europe. It was formed in 1999 to promote, develop, organise, and administer the game of rugby in Europe under the authority of World Rugby (the sport's global governing body). However, it ...

(FIRA-AER).

Outcome

The finals tournament held in Hanover, Germany on 12 and 13 July 2008, as well as being the European Sevens Championship, functioned as a qualifying tournament for the world cup. England, France and Scotland had already qualified through their past performance. The five best nations out of the twelve participating ones qualified for the Dubai tournament. Teams finished in the following order:

Bid

On 16 June 2007, the FIRA congress in

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

decided to award the finals tournament to Hanover, beating bids from Russia, Greece and

Bosnia-Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to the north a ...

in the process.

Tournament history

From 2002,

FIRA Firá (, pronounced , official name Φηρά Θήρας - ''Firá Thíras'') is the modern capital of the Greece, Greek Aegean Sea, Aegean island of Santorini (Thera). A traditional settlement,http://www.visitgreece.gr Greek National Tourism Or ...

, the governing body of European rugby, has been organising an annual European Sevens Championship tournament. A number of qualifying tournaments lead up to a finals tournament, which functions as the European championship and, in 2008, also as the qualifying stage for the Sevens World Cup. The first European Championship was held in 2002 in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

, Germany, and was won by Portugal, the team that won every championship since except 2007, when Russia won. The next year, the tournament was again held in Heidelberg and in 2004,

Palma de Mallorca Palma (, ; ), also known as Palma de Mallorca (officially between 1983 and 1988, 2006–2008, and 2012–2016), is the capital and largest city of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is ...

, Spain was the host. From 2005 to 2007, Moscow was the host of the tournament. Hanover held the tournament for the first time in 2008 and will do so again in 2009.

Tournament

Stadium

The finals tournament was held at the

AWD-Arena Niedersachsenstadion (, ) is a football stadium in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany, which is home to football club Hannover 96. The original 86,000-capacity stadium was completed in 1954 and has since been rebuilt several times for various major ...

in Hanover, home ground of the football club

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), is a German professional association football, football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years between 19 ...

. The stadium holds 50.000 spectators, 43,000 of them on seats, the rest standing. The tournament was seen by over 30,000 spectators, a good turn out in a country like Germany, where rugby is not a mainstream sport. After selling more than 35,000 tickets in advance, mostly within Germany, the organisers were forced to open up the upper tier of the stadium to meet demand.Germans go sevens-crazy

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

, accessed: 26 January 2009

Qualifying

Twelve teams qualified through the seven qualifying tournaments, held at the following locations: Source:

Group stage

The tournament was divided into a group and a finals stage. In the group stage, two groups of six teams were drawn. Within each group, each team played each other once. The top two teams went to the Cup stage of the tournament while the third and fourth placed team qualified for the Plate stage. Five and six went to the Bowl finals.

Group A

Group B

Finals

Three separate rounds of finals were held, Bowl, the lowest, Plate and Cup. The semi final winners of each group went on to the final while the losers played each other. All teams from the Cup stage were qualified for the next sevens world cup and also the Plate winner.

Bowl

Winner: Russia

Plate

Winner: Italy ''(qualified for the 2009 Sevens world cup)''

Cup

Winner: Portugal ''(all four teams qualified for the 2009 Sevens world cup)''

Top point scorers

Key: Con = conversions; Pen = penalties; Drop = drop goals

Teams

Belgium

Head coach: Neil Massinon Manager: Thierry Massinon Source:

Georgia

Head coach: Kakhaber Alania Source:

Germany

Head coach: Lofty Stevenson Source:

Ireland

Head coach: Jon Skurr Source:

Italy

Head coach: Source:

Poland

Head coach: Source:

Portugal

Head coach:

Tomaz Morais Tomaz Eduardo Carvalho Morais (born 6 April 1970 in Lobito, Angola) is a Portuguese rugby union coach and a former player. Life and career The son of Portuguese settlers in Angola, Morais moved to Portugal following the 25 April 1974 revolution ...

Source:

Romania

Head coach: Source:

Russia

Head coach:

Claude Saurel Claude Saurel (17 April 1948 – 6 April 2025) was a French rugby union footballer and coach. Biography Saurel played his rugby for Béziers, with his position being flanker. He later became the national coach of the Morocco national team. In ...

Source:

Spain

Head coach:

José Ignacio Inchausti José Ignacio Inchausti Bravo (born 1 January 1973 in Madrid) is a Spanish former rugby union player and coach, nicknamed "Tiki", who played as a centre. Playing career He debuted for the Spain national rugby union team in a test match against Ja ...

Source:

Ukraine

Head coach: Michel Bishop Source:

Wales

Head coach:

Gareth Baber Gareth Baber (born 23 May 1972) is a Welsh rugby player and coach. He is best known for coaching and leading the Fiji sevens team to win their second gold medal in rugby sevens at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He coached Fiji to their fourth World ...

Source:

References

External links

Portugal lead Euro charge to 2009 RWC Sevens
IRB website – Article on the 2009 Sevens world cup qualifying
Hannover sevens website

FIRA-AER official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sevens

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

International rugby union competitions hosted by Germany

European European, or Europeans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe and other West ...

2008–09 in European rugby union 2008–09 in German rugby union Rugby union in Hanover