It’s over for me. I enjoyed these two seasons like none of the previous ones, I feel grateful to have had the privilege of taking charge of a team like ours. I have met and worked with fantastic people, the players, the staff, the referees, the tournament officials and the NRF. Working with rugby again was awesome. It felt like home, being part of a family.

I have stressed like I hadn’t for years before important games. I have laughed like I was 20 again. I have met great people – all nice, clever, humble and generous. I have been taken by the emotion of winning key games. I have seen players giving it all. I have felt the deep disappointment of the close defeat. These tournaments expose us to a whole range of emotions… I also have been to those places I would never travel to, met the kindest people, lived the life of the locals for a few days.

In its core, rugby hasn’t changed much since I first coached in 2005. It’s a bit more professional, but the spirit and the values are as strong as before.

It will never cease to amaze me to see players throwing themselves in tackles, exposing their entire body without restrain, finding ways of remobilizing after a defeat, giving it all again and again. And shaking the opponents’ hand with respect after every game.

Thanks to everyone who supported us, to the club coaches who develop the players we have the privilege to work with. Good luck to Germany and Romania in Kazan and in the Grand Prix next year. Thanks to Finland and Denmark for the good collaboration and the great spirit. I say it’s over but maybe we may have a last tournament before I hand the team over to the next coach… I hear rumors of a Nordic tournament in November 🙂

Again a great season with the team. We finish 7th in the overall rankings, two places up from last year. Our goal for the season was top 6, we almost made it. We are ranked just below Portugal, and two places back Sweden. As last year, the next one, Georgia, is nine points below us, a safe margin.

We have secured our place in the Trophy for next year. We actually secured it at the very first game, against Romania. We knew from there that we would be in the top 8, which almost means no relegation.

All the nordic nations will be in the trophy next year. Denmark is promoted from the Conference after their second place. Finland, Sweden and us will stay in the trophy again. We will be in the same pool as Denmark, Portugal

We have performed well against higher ranked teams. Nobody scored more than 22 points against us in Lisbon. So the gap is closing.

We have worked with a larger squad this year, investing in the future. Many of the national team’s players will be competing at NM Uka later this week. Looking forward to see them, I am confident that they will give a good show!

Last but not least, we have initiated the nordic collaboration with Finland and Denmark. We had been talking about it for years, it was good to finally getting started. And it has given good results for all teams involved: we have all climbed in the rankings. The players say they appreciated playing these training games, with no pressure and a good opposition. It give exposure and helps them improving their understanding of the game and their skills.

We have talked about a nordic championship in the autumn, that would be a great way to conclude the year.

The tournament is over, we came at the 7th place this time, just behind Sweden again. The last game was difficult for the players who had used a lot of energy in the games against Germany and Sweden, two games where we could not sub too much. Trude chose to start with a slightly different team, to bring fresher players. We struggled to play our rugby in the first half, especially with the two yellow cards, but gradually took control of the game and won. It was ‘just’ a game for the 7th place, a ranking game, but it felt good to win anyway.

It seems to me that our ranking in Budapest (6th) and here in Portugal (7th) is fair. Clearly above the bottom 4, but not quite there yet to compete against top teams. In Lisbon, we never lost a game by more than 22 points – we were competitive in all the games.

We had the banquet in the stadium, with all the teams. A barbeque! Last year, we had lost all our games in the last day. It didn’t feel so good at the party afterwards. Finishing on a win this time changed everything. It’s been a good second day, a good tournament and a great season.

But you know the rule… what happens on tour stays on tour.

Trude and I have reviewed our 2 last seasons, and the whole history of Norwegian women’s 7s, and we came to the clear conclusion that we are awesome!

We won our last game against Georgia, 12-5. It was a tensed game, both teams making a lot of mistakes. We got two yellow cards in the first half, almost at the same time, so we played with 5 players for almost 2 minutes. Georgia took advantage of this and scored a non converted try, despite a courageous defense from the remaining Norwegian girls.

In the second half, we managed to score a converted try, which gave us the lead, and a non converted try on the bell.

We’ve watched Sweden (game for 5th place against Portugal), and are now cheering for Finland later (bronze final).

Starting team: Karoline, Ellen, Tonje, Rebekka, Ingrid R, Kathrine, Gina.

Subs: Silje Elin, Åsa, Ingrid H, Karin

Tries: Gina, Kathrine

Conversion: Kathrine

… but Sweden still won, 12-5. It’s our closest score against Sweden though. We could be happy about it, but we are mostly disappointed – they were winnable today.

For our last game, we will play Georgia. We played them earlier this year in Nancy, we won once, lost once.

We’re having lunch now.

Starting team: Karoline, Tonje, Gina, Karin, Ingrid R, Kathrine, Åsa.

Subs: Ellen, Miriam

Try: Gina

We lost 22-0, after an intense game. Germany started the game as yesterday, putting pressure on us in our 22m, and scoring two early tries. Despite some possession and good occasions, we did not score and Germany added another try before the break.

In the second half, we got possession but the defensive pressure from Germany prevented us to gain much ground. They were also quick at closing the gaps. They ended up scoring a last try.

We’re now watching Sweden-Finland. We will play the loser of that game.

Starting team: Karoline, Gina, Miriam, Karin, Ingrid R, Tonje, Åsa.

Subs: Silje Elin, Ellen, Rebekka

We’re playing the opening game today, at 10:00 (local time). We had breakfast at 07:30, and are now in the bus on our way to the stadium.

It’s raining a bit, quite foggy – the Bergen players are happy 🙂

So it is confirmed, we are in the top 8 again. We will play at 10 (11 CET) tomorrow against… Germany.

But first, back to today. The pool we had included the winner from the first round, Germany, the host nation Portugal and Israel, a team we had struggled beating in Hungary. We anticipated that we would end up fighting for the 3rd place against Israel, and fighting for one of the two best third places against teams in the other pools. It’s the olympic tournament format with 12 teams: 3 pools of 4, the best 2 in each pool and the two best 3rd go to the top 8, the last one and the 4th in each pool go to bottom 4. So we needed at least to win against Israel, and to minimize our point difference in the other two games. The score after Portugal was ok, 17 points down. The second game was a struggle as expected, but we turned a 0-14 situation at halftime to a 19-14 at full time.

Before the final game against Germany, we knew we were competing with Georgia and Turkey, who were the other 3rd in their pool. Turkey had a -60 point difference – all in all we needed to lose by less than 48 points.

We told the players about the need to minimize point difference, but didn’t tell them about the 48 points, as we wanted them to play the best possible rugby, and not to start counting the points.

For a game it was. Germany took an early 10-0 lead in the first half, by scoring two tries in the first 3 minutes. But we reached halftime on the same score, thanks to an awesome defense play by everyone, both in the team work and in the tackles. At the break, we focused on that score: we were not far behind, we could win that game.

And we got close… After the break, we managed to score a beautiful try, by Gina, converted by Karin. We could hear the crowd cheering ‘Gina, Gina’ (yes we have quite a few supporters). We were just 3 points behind. But Germany kept fighting, scored a new try on an interception in our 22m. They added a 4th try in the last minute, which sealed the game. We lost 22-7, which gave us a cumulative point difference of -27 in the pool phase, ahead of Turkey… We were into the top 8!

It’s the fourth time in a row that we reach the top 8 in a EM round. We have secured our place in the Trophy next year, and we’re giving ourself a chance to reach higher in the rankings. This did not happen by chance, we fought hard for this, had to fight hard also during the games we would not win.

At the end of the game against Germany, ohh, we were happy as if we had won! Sometimes it feels like this.

Our supporters in the stadium were as happy as we were!

A little inside story… Something nice happened before the last game. Our captain, Karoline, was having a tough day. She was back from a small injury and was struggling to get back in the game. We could see that in the first two games. For the last game she decided that she needed to focus on herself. Being the captain is a job: she leads the warm up, talks to the team, encourages everyone. It’s a lot of attention and energy given to others. She does it extremely well, and it shows in our games. But at this game, she wanted a break. She asked Ingrid Ringsrud, the vice-captain, to relieve her and take charge. Ingrid did a great job, and Karoline had a fantastic game.

It takes a special kind of person to temporarily give away captainship, in the middle of a tournament. It shows humility. It also takes a special kind of person to step in and take over captainship 30min before the game. It shows leadership. We’re lucky to have Karoline and Ingrid working together like this.