FIRA Women's European Championship

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FIRA Women's European Championship
Sport	Rugby union
Founded	1988
No. of teams	19
Country(ies)	Belgium; Bosnia and Herzegovina; England; Finland; France; Germany; Ireland; Italy; Kazakhstan; Luxembourg; Netherlands; Norway; Romania; Russia; Scotland; Serbia; Sweden; Spain; Wales
Most recent champion(s)	England

FIRA's Women's European Championship (or - as it is also known - the European nations Cup) is an international rugby union competition contested between women's national teams who are members of FIRA - Association of European Rugby. The competition has its origins in a four nation "European Cup" held in 1988 but did not become an official FIRA competition until 1995. The competition has grown significantly and is now divided into two "Pools" - A and B - with the leading nations in Pool A.

In recent years England and France have not tended to send their full national teams to the competition, but have instead sent their "A" sides. The English and French unions would not consider games played by these teams as full internationals - however their opponents generally would.

The winner of tournament held in between the World Cups (every four years) does attract an extra cachet as the major nations enter full squads. As a result there can often be two officially recognised "European Champions" - that year's FIRA winner, and the winner of the previous title in the four year cycle. This can cause some confusion, not least because the structure of the four-yearly tournament is invariably identical to the annual event. To make identification easier the competitions in the four yearly cycle are highlighted

1 Tournaments

[edit] Tournaments

[edit] Championship and "Pool A" tournaments

Year	Host	Winner	Score	Runner-up	3rd place	Score	4th place
Year	Host	Final			Third place match
1988 Details	France	France	8 - 6	Great Britain	Italy	Score unknown	Netherlands
1995 Details	Italy	Spain	22 - 6	France	Italy	Score unknown	Netherlands
1996 Details	Spain	France	15 - 10	Spain	Italy	Score unknown	Netherlands
1997 Details	France	England	24 - 8	Scotland	Spain	25 - 8	France
1999 Details	Italy	France	13 - 5	Spain	Scotland	15 - 13	England
2000 Details	Spain	France	31 - 0	Spain	England	40 - 20	Scotland
2001 Details	France	Scotland	15 - 3	Spain	England	34 - 23	France
2002 Details	Italy	Italy	35 - 24	Sweden	Germany	12 - 10	Netherlands
2003 Details	Sweden	Spain	16 - 10	France	Sweden	15 - 10	Italy
2004 Details	France	France	8 - 6	England	Scotland	11 - 10	Wales
2005 Details	Germany	Italy	22 - 3	Netherlands	Sweden	17 - 5	Germany
2006 Details	Italy	Italy	28 - 7	Netherlands	Russia	-	Sweden
2007 Details	Spain	England	27 - 17	France	Spain	37 - 0	Netherlands
2008 Details	Netherlands	England	12 - 6	Wales	Ireland	12 - 12 (try count)	France
2009 Details

[edit] Performance of nations

France - 4 titles, 3 runners-up, 3 fourths
England - 3 titles, 1 runner-up, 2 thirds, 1 fourth
Italy - 3 titles, 3 third, 1 fourth
Spain - 2 titles, 4 runners-up, 2 thirds
Scotland - 1 title, 1 runner-up, 2 thirds, 1 fourth
Netherlands - 2 runners-up, 5 fourths
Sweden - 1 runner-up, 2 thirds, 1 fourth
Wales - 1 runner-up, 1 fourth
Great Britain - 1 runner-up
Germany - 1 third, 1 fourth
Russia - 1 third
Ireland - 1 third

[edit] "Pool B" tournaments

Year	Host	Winner	Score	Runner-up	3rd place	Score	4th place
Year	Host	Final			Third place match
2000 Details	Spain	Flandre	Pool	Netherlands	Germany
2001 Details	France	Sweden	Pool	Netherlands	Germany	Pool	Belgium
2003 Details	Netherlands	Netherlands	19 - 12	Germany	Norway	10 - 10 (penalties)	Denmark
2004 Details	France	Netherlands	Pool	Germany	Norway	Pool	Denmark
2005 Details	Bosnia-Herzegovina	Russia	Pool	Norway	Bosnia-Herzegovina
2007 Details	Belgium	French Universities	13 - 7	Belgium	Germany	15 - 0	Romania
2008 Details	Netherlands	Russia	31 - 14	French Defence	Germany	19 - 15	Belgium
2009 Details