The Rugby Europe Women's Sevens, previously the FIRA–AER Women's Sevens until 2013, is a series of regional championships for women's international rugby sevens in Europe. Prior to 2012, the annual tournament is held over two days, typically on a weekend in June, before the highest category tournament was reorganized as the Sevens Grand Prix Series, modeled after the format of the World Rugby Sevens Series. The tournaments are sanctioned and sponsored by Rugby Europe.

History

Women's Sevens Grand Prix Series Trophy 2015-06-21

Rugby sevens — also known as 7-a-side, or 7s — is a short form of the sport of

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

that was first played in 1883. The first (men's) internationals took place in 1973. As women's rugby union developed in the 1960s and 1970s the format became very popular as it allowed games, and entire leagues, to be developed in countries even when player numbers were small, and it remains the main form the women's game is played in most parts of the world. However, although the first

women's international rugby union Women's international rugby union has a history going back to the late 19th century, but it was not until 1982 that the first international fixture (or "test match") involving women's rugby union took place. The match was organised in connection w ...

15-a-side test match took place in 1982, it was not until 1997 before the first women's international 7s tournaments were played, when the 1997 Hong Kong Sevens included a women's tournament for the first time. Over the next decade the number of tournaments grew, with almost every region developing regular championship competitions. This reached its zenith with 2009's inaugural women's tournament for the Rugby World Cup Sevens, shortly followed by the announcement that women's rugby sevens will be included in the Olympics from 2016. The first official regional 7s championship for international women's teams from European was the European Women's Sevens Championship held in 2003 in Lunel,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. Since then, the regional 7s championships have periodically served as pre-qualifying competitions for the Rugby 7s World Cup, or other sevens tournaments. The following are details of all regional women's international championships played in Europe, listed chronologically with the earliest first, with all result details, where known (included are the FIRA–AER Women's Sevens and other official regional championships, e.g. the Europe Emerging Nations tournaments).

Tournaments

Championship Series

Team records for Championship Series

Trophy

Conference

References

{{European Championships Women's rugby sevens competitions

Women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

sevens Women's rugby union competitions in Europe for national teams 2003 establishments in Europe Recurring sporting events established in 2003