Sevens Grand Prix Series

Sevens Grand Prix Series

Current season, competition or edition: 2017 Rugby Europe Men's Sevens Championships
Sport	Rugby sevens
Founded	2011
No. of teams	12
Country	European
Most recent champion(s)	Russia (4th title)
Most titles	Portugal (8 titles)

The Sevens Grand Prix Series are a series of rugby sevens tournaments held by Rugby Europe. It was formerly known as the FIRA European Sevens, with only one annual tournament prior to 2011, when it was reorganized as a series of tournaments, following the model of the World Rugby Sevens Series, and named the Sevens Grand Prix Series. Rugby Europe also sponsors continental sevens tournaments divided into multiple divisions, incorporating a promotion/relegation system.

Format

In the Grand Prix, twelve teams play in several tournaments each summer throughout Europe. Each tournament spans two days — the first day is a pool phase and the second day is a knockout phase. During the pool phase, the teams are divided into three pools of four teams each. After the pool phase, the top eight teams (two first of each pool, plus two best-performing third place teams) advance to the Cup tournament; the other four teams play for the Challenge Trophy.

At the end of each tournament, teams are awarded points based on their performance. At the end of the series, the team with the most points is declared the champion. The team with the fewest points is relegated from the Grand Prix to the Trophy competition, whereas the champion of the Trophy competition is promoted to next season's Grand Prix.

History

2002–2010

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, Germany, 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, Spain was the host. From 2005 to 2007, Moscow 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 return to Moscow.

2011–present

In 2011, the format of the competition changed. The twelve best teams meet on several tournaments, following the model of the IRB Sevens World Series. The name also changed, the European Championship was known as Sevens Grand Prix Series.

The first edition of this competition was held in 2011 with a victory of Portugal.

Honours

Championship era

Year	Champion	Runner Up	Third	Fourth
2002	Portugal	Georgia	Germany	France
2003	Portugal	France	Georgia	Germany
2004	Portugal	Italy	Ireland	Scotland
2005	Portugal	Russia	Italy	France
2006	Portugal	Russia	Italy	France
2007	Russia	France	Moldova	Spain
2008	Portugal	Wales	Georgia	Ireland
2009	Russia	France	Italy	Spain
2010	Portugal	France	Russia	Spain

Grand Prix Series era

Year	Champion	Runner Up	Third	Fourth
2011	Portugal	England	Spain	Russia
2012	England	Portugal	France	Spain
2013	England	France	Russia	Italy
2014	France	Scotland	England	Russia
2015	France	Spain	England	Russia
2016	Russia	France	Spain	Germany
2017	Russia	Ireland	Spain	Wales

Team records

Team	Champions	Runners-up	Third	Fourth
Portugal	8 (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011)	1 (2012)	-	-
Russia	4 (2007, 2009, 2016, 2017)	2 (2005, 2006)	2 (2010, 2013)	3 (2011, 2014, 2015)
France	2 (2014, 2015)	6 (2003, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2016)	1 (2012)	3 (2002, 2005, 2006)
England	2 (2012, 2013)	1 (2011)	2 (2014, 2015)	-
Spain	-	1 (2015)	3 (2011, 2016, 2017)	4 (2007, 2009, 2010, 2012)
Italy	-	1 (2004)	3 (2005, 2006, 2009)	1 (2013)
Georgia	-	1 (2002)	2 (2003, 2008)	-
Ireland	-	1 (2017)	1 (2004)	1 (2008)
Scotland	-	1 (2014)	-	1 (2004)
Wales	-	1 (2008)	-	1 (2017)
Germany	-	-	1 (2002)	2 (2003,2016)
Moldova	-	-	1 (2007)	-

Lower division

Trophy

Year	Champion	Runner Up	Third	Fourth
2013	Belgium	Poland	Netherlands	Sweden
2014	Lithuania	Poland	Cyprus	Sweden
2015	Poland	Ukraine	Latvia	Moldova
2016	Ireland	Ukraine	Sweden	Romania
2017	Sweden	Romania	Luxembourg	Ukraine

Conference 1

Year	Champion	Runner Up	Third
2013 (North)	Latvia	Norway	Luxembourg
2013 (South)	Monaco	Hungary	Switzerland
2014 (North)	Czech Republic	Norway	Luxembourg
2014 (South)	Hungary	Bulgaria	Switzerland
2015	Ireland	Serbia	Slovenia
2016	Croatia	Luxembourg	Hungary
2017	Hungary	Bulgaria	Slovakia

Conference 2

Year	Champion	Runner Up	Third
2015	Ireland	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Serbia
2016	Malta	Montenegro	Austria
2017	Austria	Finland	Estonia

Partners

Société Générale, Eurosport 2 (Official broadcaster), Berugbe

References

External links

• Grand Prix Series on FIRA-AER's official website