Only silver: French ladies lead…
On 12 June, the first stage of Rugby Europe Women's Sevens Grand Prix Series ended in the Central Stadium in Kazan. A correspondent of Realnoe Vremya saw a stern fight of nice and sinewy girls wearing shorts and T-shirts on an emerald grass… French ladies took the lead in this series, Russian girls were runners-up. Rugby has being played in Kazan for 49 years already, take into account.
Rugby players respect Kazan…
If somebody is not aware, the most popular sport – football – appeared in the middle of the 19th century from rugby, a popular game of the people of The Foggy Albion. It has the same pitch, another marking, another ball, noticeably different rules, and today there are even different types of rugby. World Series starts in December and ends in May. Men have 10 stages, women – 5. But rugby sevens (seven people play) become an Olympic sport just recently. We will start from this fact…
It should be noted the World Series is an elite competition. And only 15 strongest national teams have an opportunity to participate in all ten stages of the contest. In the last season, the Russian rugby players were among constant participants of the World Series, managed to preserve this place and took the 14th position. Last year, a stage of the Rugby Europe Women's Sevens Grand Prix Series was held in Kazan in Tulpar stadium. The national team of Russia was the winner; it defeated the national team of France in a spectacular final.
The capital of Tatarstan has great experience in preparation and excellent organisation of the largest international competitions like world cups and European championships, the 2013 World Summer Universiade where the Russian men's and women's rugby sevens teams won gold medals.
Rafik Sattarov, chairman of Rugby Seven Development Committee, defined tasks of the organisers at the press conference before the opening of the tournament:
'Kazan hosts a stage of Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix Series for the second time. This time we will try to make not only the game but also all programme interesting. Our task is to attract spectators to the stadiums. In the future, we plan to invite men's European stage and maybe the world stage too. Kazan is very good at organising sports events. We connect the future development of this sport with this city. We want to host the world series to Russia. I think this question will take 5-7 years. Taking into account the position of the administration of Tatarstan, one of the stages can take place in Kazan too.'
I counted tens of spectators only on the first say of the competition (the western stands were virgin). It is a very specific sport. The press centre had no Internet on the first day, TVs turned off – these things happen… One of the stages of the Rugby Sevens World League in Hon Kong gathered 35,000 people, the same attendance was in Dubai. The thing is that our life is different.
Azat Kadyrov, director general of Directorate of Sports and Social Projects ANO, hoped that the Russian national team would have a good result in the Kazan stage of the competitions. He also told about the development of this sport in the republic a bit:
'Rugby has being developing in Tatarstan for 50 years: next year this sport will celebrate its 50th anniversary of its existence in our republic. The Rugby Federation of Tatarstan puts all efforts to attract not only men but also women to this sport. As for the very competitions, we hope the citizens and guests of Kazan will pay attention to it. Moreover, they will have an opportunity to participate in a prize draw.'
Director of the competition John Douglas told how comfortable it was to organise the event in Kazan: 'The local organisers made a huge job: the stadium is very good, and the very city corresponds to the level of the contest. Rugby Sevens is a rapidly developing sport throughout the world. Russia is not an exception. Rugby is getting more popular here'.
The head coach of women's national rugby team of Russia Pavel Baranovsky said he counts on a successful performance of his players on the Tatarstan land:
'The team is fully ready for the coming matches. We brought the strongest squad. We don't think the competition in Kazan is a preparation for more serious contests; on the contrary, we suppose the home game is one of our key tournaments of the year. And we need to win it. Now our team rounds out the top 7. We have only giants ahead: New Zealand, Australia, Canada, England, France. Rugby is their No.1 sport. And the fact that Russia is the seventh in the world is already good.'
It should be specified the European champion will be known after two stages (the second will be in French Brive on 24-25 September).
Without problems to the final
In the first match Russian flattened Belgium 54-0, in the second game won against Italy without problems 26-0, and then the host team defeated Ireland – the main rival of the group – 29-5. Don't be surprised with the digits: it is rugby. For instance, the match Spain vs. Great Britain-1 ended 0-64. The level of the teams is different. So, in the quarterfinal the Russian girls had to meet with Portugal. They won: Russia vs. Portugal 28-5 (14-5).
After the win over Ireland, the head coach of the national team of Russia Pavel Baranovsky admitted he is never satisfied with the game of his players:
'This victory over Ireland was necessary to make the girls feel confident before the Olympic qualifying. As a rival, Portugal is not the best variant for the quarterfinal. We would like to play with a stronger rival because later we will have to play against Great Britain, France who are far stronger. And Portugal is a good and tight-knit team, but its level is quite low. As a coach, I will possible be never satisfied with our game because mistakes are always made, they need to be corrected. Our goal is not only to simply defeat Ireland but also demonstrate an excellent game, make the team keep the ball, play in defence less and attack more, so that the spectators will enjoy rugby. It is wrong to say we use the competition in Kazan as a preparation for Dublin where a qualifying match for Rio will take place. We came here to show a vibrant game, make this sport stick in Russia and become popular.'
Our player Daria Lushina shared her impressions of the game against Portugal and expectations of the semi-final. Lushina was the best player of the first stage of the European Championship: he had 41 points under her belt before the semi-final.
'We played bad against Portugal. The team's mood was not bad. We stepped on the field without several players of the first team. We did not manage to man up and demonstrate a game. Yes, we won, but we did not do it confidently. It was not victorious. We are getting ready to meet with Great Britain, we need to win. Great Britain is a world level rival that competes in the World Series. We often play with them. We know all of them, won them many times. We demonstrated our character only when we played together with the team. I hope we will manage to do it today. We feel support in Kazan: the flag, motherland. It is a responsibility because everyone wants to help the team. We need to return the European title. Everything is great here both this and last year. We really like it,' the athlete assured.
Victory over the founders but defeated by ladies…
Russia played against Great Britain-1 in the semi-final. One of the leaders and founders of rugby Heather Fisher estimated the organisation level of the competition and the rival before the match the following way:
'Matches with Russia are always tough. We will have to oppose strong rivals as well as in the game with Great Britain-2. The Russian team has good runners who are physically strong. But we need this game on the threshold of the Olympiad. I'm playing in Kazan for the second time but in this stadium I do it for the first time. The pitch is very good, the organisation level of the competition is good. Rugby is a very interesting game. It is possible to start doing it at any age. Rugby forms a person's character. You take many important lessons in sport. It is incredible…'
In the semi-final, the Russians defeated the first team of Great Britain in a tense fight – 19-17 (12-12). The reigning European champions French ladies were stronger than Ireland – 26-12 (14-7).
Player of the national team of Russia Elena Zdrokova summed up the semi-final:
'I was sitting on the bench waiting to enter the game. I wanted to help the team so much because we brought two attempts themselves. I wanted to win this victory in front of our people. Our character was stronger, so, everything is good. There was a psychological nervousness, even our leaders were nervous. Everybody freaked. It was difficult to play, everyone was nervous. We made many mistakes in the first half.'
Unfortunately, France defeated Russia 22-12 in the final game.
'We completely failed the first half,' Yulia Guzeva, a player of the national team of Russia, noted. 'We did not control the ball. We will correct the mistakes and work on the most important competition – the Olympic qualifying. We will defeat France in the second stage of the European Championships, everything will be fine. I don't think France is stronger, we lost because of our own mistakes.'
Marina Petrova, captain of the national team of Russia, talked to the journalists, admitted the failure of her own game and take the rap:
'I completely failed the game. I did not demonstrate myself as a leading player. Young and unexperienced players hope on people like me thinking we will lead the team. When we fail, the team starts to look for its game. It is possible that we worried too much, or, on the contrary, we were extremely confident and calm. It cannot be said we underestimated our rival. We tried but failed our moments, the attack, made many mistakes. We maybe lost the game. In principle, a team must attack. We possibly did not do our best. The team could not play better and show itself. We started to play late, and it resulted in such a result. I think we did not do our best. We could demonstrate what we did during our trainings. The main thing is to correct the mistakes, which we had enough. We will be in shape. Now we need to calm down, study our mistakes in detail, work and play better in Ireland…'
The first team of Great Britain and the national team of Ireland played for the third place. The British girls won 32-0 and got a bronze medal. And then pop singers Hannah and Nathan song to the public. So, everyone was glad…
