The 2009 European Sevens Championship was a rugby sevens competition, with the final held in

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It was the eighth edition of the European Sevens championship and was organised by rugby's European governing body, the

FIRA – Association of European Rugby Rugby Europe is the administrative body for rugby union in Europe. It was formed in 1999 to promote, develop, organise, and administer the game of rugby in Europe under the authority of World Rugby (the sport's global governing body). However, it ...

(FIRA-AER).The 7s European Championship
Hannover Sevens website, accessed: 4 June 2010 The tournament differed from the previous seasons event as the number of participating men's teams had been reduced from twelve to ten. Instead, a women's tournament was held alongside the men's, also consisting of ten teams. The men's tournament was won by Russia, while England took out the women's title.

Tournament history

From 2002, FIRA, the governing body of European rugby, has been organising an annual

European Sevens Championship The Rugby Europe Sevens are a series of rugby sevens tournaments held by Rugby Europe. It was formerly known as the FIRA-AER Sevens until 2013, and the Sevens Grand Prix Series until 2021. Only one annual tournament existed prior to 2011, when ...

tournament. A number of qualifying tournaments lead up to a finals tournament, which functions as the European championship and, in 2008, also as the qualifying stage for the Sevens World Cup. The first European Championship was held in 2002 in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

, and was won by Portugal, the team that won every men's championship since except 2007 and 2009, when Russia won. In 2003, the tournament was again held in Heidelberg and, in 2004,

Palma de Mallorca Palma (; ; also known as ''Palma de Mallorca'', officially between 1983–88, 2006–08, and 2012–16) is the capital and largest city of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situate ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

was the host. From 2005 to 2007,

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

was the host of the tournament. Hanover held the tournament for the first time in 2008 and did so again in 2009. In 2010, the tournament will return to Moscow.

Finals stadium

The 2008 and 2009 finals tournaments were held at the

AWD-Arena Niedersachsenstadion (, ) is a football stadium in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany, which is home to football club Hannover 96. The original 86,000-capacity stadium was completed in 1954 and has since been rebuilt several times for various ...

in Hanover, home ground of the football club

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), Hannover, HSV or simply 96, is a German professional football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years betwe ...

. The stadium holds 50.000 spectators, 43,000 of them on seats, the rest standing.

Qualifying

A qualifying competition was held for the men's teams, with points allocated according to final placings in each tournament. Each nation was required to play two qualifying tournaments.Qualifiers for the Hannover Sevens 2009
Hannover Sevens website, accessed: 4 June 2010 Ten teams qualified through the six qualifying tournaments, held at the following locations:

Final standings

These are the final standings of the tournament:

References

External links

Hannover sevens website

FIRA-AER official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sevens

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

International rugby union competitions hosted by Germany

European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

2009–10 in European rugby union 2009–10 in German rugby union July 2009 sports events in Germany Rugby union in Hanover