The German national team qualified for the 7-a-side World Cup in South Africa for the first time in history.
Rugby Germany has been waiting for this for 139 years: The German 7-a-side rugby national team has qualified for a World Cup for the first time. The team of national coach Clemens von Grumbkow from Leimen won the decisive quarter-finals against Italy 24:7 at the qualifying tournament in Bucharest on Sunday and thus bought the ticket for the highlight of the season in South Africa (September 9th to 11th).
“The first ten minutes after the game was really a relief. And then we sat down in the dressing room and realized what we had actually achieved,” said Heidelberg team captain Carlos Soteras Merz in an interview with SWR Sport. “We’ve come a long way and have been among the best in the world on many occasions. And finally having taken this step means a lot to me personally, but also to the whole group.”
March through the preliminary round
The “Wolfpack” had previously marched through the preliminary round with three wins in three games. The four victorious quarter-finalists already take part in the tournament in Cape Town. Never before had a German men’s selection qualified for a World Cup in Olympic 7-a-side or 15-a-side rugby. “It’s definitely something to be very proud of,” said national coach Clemens von Grumbkow. “But we’re not really aware of it yet. We’ve worked very, very hard on it for the last 10, 15 years and have often come up short. It’s incredible to have made it now. And we’ve really realized it not yet.”
After successes over Georgia (26:7), hosts Romania (52:0) and world series team Wales (12:10), the team had finished the group phase as the third-best team and was thus out of the quarterfinals against the favored European champions Spain and the Irish gone away.
Women’s team fails against Poland
As expected, the German women missed the leap to the World Cup. The team of national coach Cieran Anderson, which had entered the quarter-finals as the best third-placed group with a win from three games, clearly lost to the European champions from Poland with 0:43. Coach Anderson stayed calm. “I think we can be proud of this team,” he said. “Because they showed strong fighting performances and finally achieved what we set out to do, which was a place in the top eight teams and still be in the playoffs.”
