Serchii surprised us again today, he was at the airport with the Norwegian flag to say goodbye!

He was there at the stadium for all our games this weekend. A few years ago, he was an exchange student in Norway, and knew one of our player, Åsa, from that time.

What a day it was! We know from experience that day two is hard for the players, and that freshness is a key factor in the last games. So we had decided to focus on game 2 and 3, with the goal of continuing climbing in the ranking. That meant giving some key players a rest during the first game and giving the subs more playing time. It’s not an easy decision to make, we are competitors and we want to try our best all the time. But players like Karin and Tonje were exhausted at the end of the first day. Food was not great, it was small portions, that also impacted the players’ ability to recover between games. We had a discussion with the staff and the captain on Saturday evening, and agreed on this strategy: down-prioritize game 1 to be fresher for game 2 and 3.

The game against Sweden went as expected. Sweden is a better team, faster, stronger, quicker in rucks, with great individual skills in attack. There is a reason why they are ranked higher than us. In addition, they have the experience of the top level in Europe.

I’ll come back to the second game a bit later. The fact that the score was 0-22 at half time gave us the opportunity to do 5 substitutions rather quickly. In the third game, we met an exhausted Finnish team, while we were still rather fresh. We started the game very strongly, especially in our tackles. Somehow, it was obvious from the first minute that we would win. We were at our best, mentally and physically.

Of course, it’s not just the decision to prioritize game 2 and 3 which gave us a victory in the last game, but it was an important contributing factor.

So, back to game 2. T and I had a challenge after that game – how could we bring the players, the team, back to fighting mode? We needed to understand why game 2 had gone so bad. We sat together with the staff and Karoline at lunch and had a long long discussion. Maybe this careful start of the day had sent a bad signal to the team. Maybe we started the 2nd game with a too inexperienced side. Maybe we failed to put enough pressure on the players – it is what coaches must do, especially with a national team. Players at that level can cope with the pressure, it does actually help them.

Trude was to be the coach 1 (team management before and during game). We decided that she would change the warm up routine, take more leadership during warm up than what we had done in the previous games, materialize the expectations set to the players by being more present. Trude also wanted the players to talk about the last game – as a former national team player, she knows how important it is that we are open with each other. If it was a shit game, let’s say it, let’s face it. But let’s also remind each other what we are good at, what we can achieve together. Prior to warm up, she asked the players to sit down in small groups and talk, bring the positive forward. Trude was hands-on during the warm up, went through a mix of routine and new exercises. She picked an experienced team to start with.

Obviously, all this worked! Well done, Trude!

After the game, we watched the final together, and went for a swim.

Finishing the tournament on a win is important not just for ranking, but also for the start of the next tournament in two weeks. We surprised many during this weekend, received a lot of congratulations from our competitors. That last game also showed that the first day was not an accident – we have what it takes to compete within the top 8.

In Hungary in two weeks, we will be in a pool with… Netherlands (again), Switzerland (again) and Latvia. The dutch won this tournament, very clearly. We were in a tough pool this time, and we will also have a tough pool in Hungary.

We had a great evening, all together. This was our time, but I’ll share one important moment with you. The former captain of Ukraine men’s team, Valeriy Maksyuk, came to find us at the hotel after the reception. Somehow, he felt a connection with our team, and he wanted to congratulate us for a great weekend. We did surprise a lot of people. He wanted to give us a Ukrainian jersey, his jersey from back when he was playing 7s for Ukraine. Our captain Karoline chose to offer it to Gina, who she thought was the best player in the team this weekend.

It was a very emotional moment, a perfect illustration both of the values of rugby and of the players’ attachment to these values. It was a little magic.

Rugby can create these emotions – of course we focus on our game, on the technique, on the decisions we make. We don’t intend to provoke emotions. What the spectators see however is how courageous we are, how much determination we put in our game, how we cope with challenges, how far we will stretch ourselves to make these tiny differences which can bring great results.

Thanks Valeriy for taking the time to meet us, for your kind words, for this nice gesture, and for taking your captainship beyond borders.

But we won’t tell you anything about that!

We lost game 2 big time… We had played Switzerland yesterday, it was a close game. Today, we were not there. It’s difficult to set the finger on something, we collapsed under the pressure. It’s not something we often see with the national team.

Starting team: Karoline, Ellen, Gina, Karin, Ragnhild, Tonje, Åsa.

Try: Tonje

All subs came in in the course of the game.

Trude is coach 1 for the last game. We play against Finland for the 7th place. She started with a short mental preparation session. We’re also changing the warm up routine, with more steering from the coach. It’s important that we try to find solutions, and never give up on trying to improve.

Karoline is injured, she strained her ankle. With a tournament in two weeks, we decided to not take the chance. It’s tough to lose the captain on a game where the mental is key, the last game of the tournament. The vice captain, Ragnhild, will lead the team.

We lost our first game today against Sweden 39-0. We knew it would be mission impossible… Sweden is top seeded, it was a game between #1 and #8.

Starting team: Karoline, Gina, Ingrid, Kari, Ragnhild, Katherine, Åsa.

Subs: Ellen, Ine, Rebecca came in during the second half.

Next game is probably against Switzerland, it will be interesting to play them again. We’re now competing for rank 5 to 8.

Many thanks to our supporter Serchii Kutsenko