But you know the rule, what happens on tour stays on tour!

We finish 6th, defeated by Sweden in the last game, 29-5. It was one of our best game technically and tactically, but Sweden were a level above. We managed to score this time, at the last second.

It’s a fantastic result anyway, we’ll take that 6th place proudly.

Try: Ingrid SH

12-0 at full time against Turkey.

We’re in the top 6, for the first time in many years!!

In this game, we relied on our subs. They hadn’t played much so far, because we did not have any easy games to bring them on. With the energy the players had spent earlier in the Finland game, we thought we needed to bring fresher players on at half-time. Four of them came in at the break, and they delivered: good passes, good tackles, good line-outs! They managed to keep possession, and got a few occasions to go through the defense line.

We’ll meet Sweden again for the last game. We can’t seem to stop playing them 😉 Whatever happens, we’re in the top 6. It’s a great result, and a fantastic start for this season.

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

Subs: Silje Elin, Rebecca, Ingrid SH, Ellen

Tries: Tonje, Ingrid

Conversion: Kathrine

Well, the girls gave it all, but it wasn’t enough… Finland won after extra time/sudden death. We scored first in the game, in the first minutes. Finland scored right before the break, after a long sequence in our 22m.

They were first to score in the second half, and we saved the game in extremis with a last second try. Unfortunately we were never in a position to score a conversion. At full time, the score was 10-10.

In the extra time, Finland quickly got their hands on the ball, got a series a penalties and ended up in the try zone… The disappointment was huge for us.

The rest of the quarter finals brought two huge surprises. Portugal, the favorite, got defeated by Romania, and Sweden by Czech Republic.

Next game for us is against Turkey, who got promoted to Trophy for this season.

We’ve arrived at the stadium for the 2nd day of the tournament, it’s busy with players, officials, organizers and staff. It’s going to be a hot day, maybe a bit of rain at noon.

We had a chat with the players, they have a short break now before we start our warm up. Game kicks off at 11:06.

Our manager is ready as well, connected since breakfast to organize everything for us!

In summary, a great start for our season. We finished 2nd in our pool, a solid ranking. The game of the day for us was against Romania, with a win we did not expect. Romania struggled with discipline the whole day, not just against us. At one point in their match against Sweden, they had only 4 players left on the pitch because of yellow cards. Despite these yellow cards, they’re a strong team, with skills. They finished in the best 3rds, and will be in the top 8 as well.

The game against Sweden was influenced by our strategy on the first day, minimize the point difference because it could matter at the end. Defend well and hold on to the ball. From the moment we didn’t see that we could win, it was important to think about the tournament. We had discussed that the day before. Against a team like Sweden, it’s difficult to just hold on to the ball, but we tried.

The last game showed to be a real struggle in the 2nd half especially. We were losing too many balls in small mistakes, making it difficult to ourselves. On the other hand, Israel was good at keeping the ball alive which gave them the chance to test different options in attack. They had a lot of opportunity to score, only stopped by the intensity of our defense, and the solidarity between players.

Sunday, we play Finland in the quater finals. They had a strong finish on Saturday, with a win against the strong Georgian team. They also beat the host nation Hungary, but could not do much against Portugal, a clear favorite in this competition.

We’ve played Finland at the nordic training camp three months ago. Two loss, one win. It’s going to be a tough game. Finland always is strong in defense, it is difficult to score against them. And in attack, they are well organised and routined. After that game, we’ll play either Germany or Turkey.

Last game of the day was against Israel. They did not perform very well earlier, lost quite clearly to Sweden and Romania (29-0).

But a game is never won in advance. We started well scoring two tries in the first half. Israel never managed to pass the halfway line. Things were looking good and we started sub-ing players.

It turned out that the second half was quite a struggle for us. We were mostly in our 40m, unable to keep possession or to find our way out. Israel scored a non-converted try. Then we got 2 yellow cards and had to finish the game with only 5 players on the pitch. The players managed to hold literally on the try line for the last 2 minutes. When the final whistle blew, we were saved and finished the game 12-5…

Great effort by everyone, and great game by Israel. We finish number 2 in our pool, a great result. It looks like we will play Finland tomorrow, in the 1/4 final.

We’re back to the hotel now, ready for diner!

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

Subs: Ellen, Gina, Rebecca.

Tries: Tonje, Karin

Conversion: Karin

Game 2 was a tough one, we knew it. Sweden is a top seeded team, they had impressed us in Nancy a few weeks’ back, where they made it to the final. Their first game against Israel was quite impressive as well – they had won 50-0, had played good rugby, with some nice switches, something difficult to defend against when done well.

We held quite well in the first half, the score at the break was 10-0. The second half was more of a challenge, final score was 29-0.

Well, we quickly shift the focus to our next game. The first day of these tournaments is the most important for teams like us which are not among the top teams, we want to reach the top 8, and need to win two games to secure it. That last game against Israel will be important.

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

All subs came in.

No tries for Norway.

19-17 for Norway

What a nice start in this year’s EM. We won our first game after a really tough fight against Romania. They were leading on the scoreboard for the whole game, and we scored a last minute converted try!

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

Subs: Rebecca, Ellen, Åsa.

Silje, Miriam did not play.

Tries: Tonje x2, Åsa

Conversions: Karin, Karoline

We’re having a well deserved lunch now!

Our first game is at 12:06 against Romania. It’s a rather late start, so we had a late breakfast, and we took the players’ meeting this morning.

We’re now in the bus, on our way to the stadium. This tournament is part of the Olympics qualification process for 7s rugby. It has practical consequences as we can only have Norwegian players – no long term residents as normally allowed in rugby.

We played Romania once last year, in the quarter finals of the 2nd EM round. We haven’t crossed their path in the preparation.

It’s the first EM for our new manager, Alice Little. She is very pro, very prepared! Note the multicolor pen in the pocket on her picture – says it all.