Just a week after France’s men and women clinched the senior European Champions titles for 2024 their under-18 teams have been at it too.
And to make it even better for the youngsters the boys and girls squads tasted success on home soil in Strasbourg over the weekend.
In the 12-team boys event, France won all three pool matches to top Pool A which also included Belgium, Czechia and Latvia while Pool B was won by Ireland.
The Irish won two and lost one and were follows by Germany, Lithuania and Romania, the top three sides in the section all ending up on seven points.
Portugal came through Pool C with a 100 percent win record with Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine behind them.
That took us into the quarter-finals and France laid down a marker with a 38-0 win over Switzerland.
Germany then battled past Lithuania 14-5 before Spain-Portugal was even closer, the latter putting in a great performance to progress 10-5.
Ireland then made sure of their place in the last four by seeing off Belgium 19-7.
France again ‘nilled’ a team in the semi-finals as they got past Germany 19-0 before Spain continued their fine knock-out form to get the better of Ireland 12-7.
Ireland dusted themselves down after that loss to take the bronze by beating Germany 21-14 with, after rankings matches, Portugal finishing fifth, Lithuania sixth, Belgium seventh, Switzerland eighth, Czechia ninth, Romania 10th, Latva 11th and Ukraine 12th. The two last teams are relegated to Trophy division for next season.
France then made sure of a home triumph by defeating Spain 26-7 while the latter could still be very proud of silver and some of their performances. France only conceded one try in the whole event.
About an hour after that boys final on Sunday, it was the girls turn as France made it a double.
To get to that stage a lot of rugby was played in the seven-team event.
Things were played as one big pool and Czechia won four of six matches to finish in third with Ireland fourth, Belgium fifth, Portugal sixth and Poland seventh.
France and Spain worked their way through the draw without losing a game meaning that by the time they met in the final match of the meet they had five wins apiece under their belts respectively.
It was no surprise to see that it was a tight match between the two in-form sides, but it was France who just managed to take the win 15-12 and, as a result, top the standings after an excellent weekend.
By Gary Heatly
