In a first for Ukraine, the blue and gold will host nine other teams at Spartak Stadium in this fast-paced version of the English original. Each team will be hoping to earn their spot at the European rugby sevens finals, to be held in Spain this July.
entually, both ball-carrying and punishing the ball-carrier were written into the rules of what was evolving into a new game: Rugby football was born.
A century and a half later, rugby remains as rough and daring as it was then, but it’s more popular than ever, surpassed only by soccer and basketball in terms of the number of groups that exist to promote it across the planet. Rugby is played in Ukraine, of course, and as a mark of this country’s ascension in world rugby ranks, later this month it will host its first-ever World Cup qualifying tournament, sanctioned by the International Rugby Board, the sport’s governing body.
The IRB Rugby Sevens World Cup qualifier June 26-27 at Spartak Stadium will see teams from 10 of the 30 European countries still in the hunt for one of 16 remaining spots in the European Rugby Sevens Championship, to be held July 16-17 in Spain. The Kyiv leg of this grueling qualification schedule will come on the heels of matches already played in Sopot, Poland (May 8-9), Split, Croatia (May 15-16) and Bordeaux, France (May 21-22), with tournaments yet to be played in Tbilisi, Georgia (June 12-13) and Moscow (May 20-21) in the weeks leading up to Kyiv.
What’s the Big Idea?
The idea behind rugby sevens is like the one between two-on-two basketball: fewer players, more action. Instead of 15 players a side, as in regular rugby, there are only seven, and games last only 15 minutes instead of the regulation 80. Nonetheless, since rugby sevens is played on a field the same size as regular rugby, the reduction in players means wide open spaces and lots of chances to score; it’s not uncommon for games to finish 115-0 in a lop-sided win, or 42-26 in a more evenly matched affair. Also, the tournament’s round-robin format has the games played back-to-back, with most of the action taking place within a few hours on opening day. Surviving teams get only a few hours overnight to lick their wounds before gritting out the playoff rounds on the second and last day.
Matching Up
Host Ukraine will be part of Group A, which will also be represented by Georgia, the Netherlands, Luxemburg and Austria, with Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Latvia and Moldova comprising Group B. Among these 10 nations, there are some definite early favorites, namely Georgia, Portugal, Spain and Ukraine. Games to watch early in round-robin play include Matches 1-4, encompassing Austria vs. Georgia, Moldova vs. Portugal, Spain vs. Sweden, and Ukraine vs. the Netherlands. These early matches will set the tone for the entire tournament: If the other teams didn’t already know who to watch out for in the previous qualifying tournaments, they sure will when these games have wrapped up. Other key matches will pit the favorites against one another: Match 11 (Georgia vs. Ukraine) and Match 12 (Spain vs. Portugal). Georgia and Portugal were each ranked tops in their respective groups going into the tournament.
Should Ukraine be lucky enough to earn a spot to Spain next month by winning their own tournament, they’ll still have a long way to go in order to win the European finals, and thus gain the honor of facing the world’s true powerhouses at the Rugby Sevens World Cup 2005.
IRB Rugby Sevens World Cup Qualifier
Kyiv, June 26-27
Spartak Stadium
105 Frunze (Lukyanivska metro).
Round-robin matches June 26:
1 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. and
8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
June 27: 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.; playoffs begin at 2 p.m.; final at 8 p.m.
Free admission.
