At the 7-a-side Rugby European Championships in Hamburg, both German teams came to a dead end in the quarter-finals on Saturday. The women had no chance against France, the men lost to Great Britain in the evening with 19:21.
The dream of the German 7-a-side rugby national team of winning the tournament at the home game of the European Championship in Hamburg has burst. The team of national coach Clemens von Grumbkow was eliminated in the quarter-finals after the bitter 19:21 (19:7) against feared opponents Great Britain. On Sunday, fifth place is still up for grabs in the placement round.
“It’s really tough right now.”
— National coach Clemens von Grumbkow
“I can’t quite explain it myself,” said von Grumbkow after the game, which his team had dominated for a long time: “The break from the injury took away our momentum. We never found our way back into the game. It’s really tough right now .” The German team started furiously against the Brits in front of around 2,000 spectators, was in the meantime 19:0 in the lead, but then completely lost the thread after a long injury break.
The goal is now Challenger Series qualification
The “Wolfpack” failed because of the world series team at the first European Championship tournament in the Algarve as well as at the Olympic qualification in Kraków. The goal now is to qualify for the Challenger Series in order to be able to play for promotion to the World Series next year. After seventh place in Portugal, the German team no longer had a chance of winning the second European Championship title after 2019.
Women again without a chance against France
The German women were also eliminated in the quarterfinals. The team around captain Mette Zimmat lost to the Olympic silver medalist France by 0:52 (0:26) and is now playing for fifth place like the men. The women had survived the preliminary round thanks to a 19-0 win over Romania as the second-best third-placed group. With a point difference of -33, the hosts were worse than the Czech Republic (-19) after their first tournament win, but better than Italy (-40). In the quarter-finals, however, France was waiting again. As in the preliminary round (0:48), there was a clear defeat, with 0:52 even a little higher.
“France is a professional team, fourth at the Olympics, they won the championship in Portugal. We are not a professional team, I think you saw that clearly,” Mette Zimmat, who was born in Hamburg and captain of the team, told NDR after the Defeat said in the group stage. “We just have to play at such a high level more often to be able to keep up. They’re just two steps ahead of us.”
Rugby event in Hamburg is to be established
The European Championship returned to Germany after the tournament in Hanover 14 years ago. Rugby Germany, the continental association Rugby Europe and the city of Hamburg want to establish the annual event in the Hanseatic city. The Millerntor stadium of the second division football club FC St. Pauli will serve as the venue for this in the future.
This topic in the program:
NDR 2 Sports | 08.07.2023 | 11:03 p.m
