France triumph at Grand Prix Sevens

By Ryan Walters

France reigned supreme at the Exeter leg of the Rugby Europe Grand Prix 7s Series as they rounded off a fantastic weekend of action with victory over England in the Cup final.

Having already secured an Olympic berth for next summer by virtue of their performances at Sandy Park, Manoel Dall Igna and Steeve Barry crossed for Les Bleus and although Ruaridh McConnochie for the Red Rose they still lost 14-5.

France had beaten Wales and Germany to reach the final, while England saw off Lithuania and Spain as the only two unbeaten teams squared off in the showpiece.

And it was Frederic Pomarel’s troops who were deservedly celebrating after they made it a clean sweep of European Series events following their triumphs in Moscow and Lyon.

In the third-place play-off, a pair of tries either side of half-time saw Spain establish a healthy 12-0 lead over Germany.

The Germans huffed and puffed but it was their Mediterranean opponents who sealed a 17-0 triumph with a late Matias Tudela try.

Wales had lost to both Russia and Georgia in the Pool on Saturday but after exiting the Cup competition at the hands of France, they bounced back to beat both eastern European sides en route to claiming the Plate.

Captain Luke Crocker, Luke Treharne and Iolo Evans all touched down as they first edged past Georgia 17-14 in the semi-final before an equally dramatic final.
Russia, who had beaten Lithuania 26-5 in the last-four, desperately searched for a winning try in the dying seconds but the Welsh defence withstood the onslaught for a 14-10 triumph – attaining Crocker’s pre-tournament target of a top-five finish, which he believes was well-earned.



“I’m very pleased to get that top-five finish – I feel like the boys deserved it at the end of the day,” explained Crocker. “I think we’ve learned a lot from this weekend. We’ve had a rough road to get here but I think we’re on the up now. We’ll get back into training, keep things positive and use this to move on.”

Lithuania endeared themselves to the Sandy Park crowd over the course of the weekend with their never-say-die attitude and they gave their small, but vocal, pocket of fans plenty to cheer as they cast aside Georgia 24-0 in their final game to seal seventh place.

In the Bowl competition, it was Portugal who came out on top by battling their way past Italy 26-12 in the final to seal ninth spot overall.

Having helped his team dramatically beat Romania 22-17 after extra-time in the semi-final, Vasco Ribeiro was the hero for the Portuguese in the showpiece as he crossed for two of his team’s four tries.

And Romania ensured they also ended their weekend on a high by overcoming Belgium 8-0 in a scrappy 11th-place play-off.

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