The Dubai Women's Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament held in Dubai, UAE. The tournament includes several competitions including, since 1994,[1] an international women's invitational competition. Though most entrants are ad hoc sides composed of club and international players from a variety of (generally European) countries, some are official national selections - the results of matches between such sides appear below.
In 2011, a new competition was launched by International Rugby Board (IRB) - the IRB Women's Challenge Cup - as a first step towards a full schedule of IRB-sponsored women's sevens events for 2012–13 season. It featured eight official national teams. The traditional international women's invitational competition also took place on neighbouring pitches.
On 4 October 2012, the IRB announced the launch of the IRB Women's Sevens World Series for the 2012–13 season. The Dubai competition will be the first of four events in the inaugural season.[4]
Played on 1 and 2 December 2007 at Dubai (Source Canada Union). Participants included Canada and USA, but there were no inter-national matches.
Dubai Tournament 2008
Date: 27–29 November 2008.
England played as England Sporting Chance Foundation. USA did not have this tournament listed as part of their preparation. Netherlands and Canada are believed to have been near full strength as were the England team. A Kenyan team had entered, but withdrew (Source Netherlands rugby).
Group Games
Sporting Chance Foundation (England) 34-7 USA
Canada 33–5 WOP Netherlands
Semi Final
Sporting Chance Foundation (England) 12-5 Canada
England went on to win the final. USA and Canada were joint third. Netherlands won the plate.
At the same time a "Gulf" competition was played but the results are not included as none of the "nations" has its own union.
The first fully sanctioned IRB women's tournament (apart from the 2009 World Cup). Held alongside that year's Dubai Sevens and the normal Women's Invitational, with the semi-finals, the final and all of the Pool A games held on the main pitch. Part of a plan to launch a full IRB International Women's Sevens Series for 2012–13. Selection criteria were not revealed by the IRB, though the teams selected and the seedings roughly reflected the 2009 World Cup rankings - but with China and Brazil invited instead of Spain and France in order to give worldwide representation. Spain were later included when New Zealand declined their invitation to attend.[13]
POOL A
Nation
Won
Drawn
Lost
For
Against
Canada
3
0
0
64
21
Australia
2
0
1
59
19
Spain
1
0
2
36
31
Brazil
0
0
3
0
88
Australia 12–5 Spain
Canada 31–0 Brazil
Australia 40–0 Brazil
Canada 19–14 Spain
Australia 7–14 Canada
Spain 17–0 Brazil
5th to 8th Place
South Africa 19–5 Brazil
Spain 22–14 China
7th Place
Brazil 14–17 China
5th Place
South Africa 0–28 Spain
POOL B
Nation
Won
Drawn
Lost
For
Against
England
3
0
0
79
34
USA
2
0
1
36
48
South Africa
1
0
2
57
58
China
0
0
3
36
68
USA 22–10 South Africa
England 26–15 China
USA 14–7 China
England 22–19 South Africa
South Africa 28–14 China
England 31–0 USA
Semi Finals
England 12–10 Australia
Canada 36–0 USA
3rd Place
Australia 22–5 USA
Final
England 7–26 Canada
Women's International Invitational Tournament
This tournament, as usual, featured a mixture of national selections and international invitational teams. The official national teams were France and Kenya in Pool A, and Netherlands and "Maple Leafs" (the Canadian development team) in Pool B. Unofficial teams were Moscow Region and Tuks (South African universities) in Pool A, and Iron Ladies (Ukraine) and Team Globaleye (international team) in Pool B.
Netherlands reach the final, where they beat the Maple Leafs
France were knocked-out in the semi-finals by Maple Leafs
Kenya lost all of their pool games, but finished as runner-up in the plate.
The following are the results of the games involving the official national selections (including the Maple Leafs, though their games are not internationals) - full results can be found here.
^This would appear to be effectively the Kazakhstan national team
^"First IRB Women's Sevens event announced" (Press release). International Rugby Board. 14 September 2011. Archived from the original on 25 September 2011. Retrieved 29 November 2011.
