The Rugby Europe Women's Championship is an international competition contested between women's national rugby union teams who are members of Rugby Europe. 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 divided into three divisions, viz. the Championship, Trophy and Conference.
History Since 2000 only the winner of the tournament held in between the Rugby World Cups (every four years, as highlighted) is officially recognised "European Champions", although teams winning tournaments in other years are often unofficially also described as "European Champions". 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.
The only major difference between the "official" European Championships and other tournaments is that in the latter, between 2001 and 2007, England and France tended not to send their full strength national squads to the competition - though until 2007 they still played as "England" or "France". This has resulted in some confusion about the status of games played by these nations - England do not consider their games to be full internationals (or "tests")Unknown and do not award caps, whereas while France also do not give caps to their players in such matches, they do recognise the games as tests matches.See statistical data on the French RFU website FIRA and all other competing nations consider all the games to be "tests".As detailed in reports on the various national websites
The 2009 tournament acted as Europe's qualification tournament for the World Cup (all entrants sending full strength squads), after which the test match status problem was finally resolved. From 2010 onwards it was announced See [2010 Women's European Trophy] for details that the non-Championship tournaments would be known as the "European Trophy" and any Six Nations entrants would officially be "A" sides (though in 2010 Italy, as they had not qualified for the 2010 World Cup, entered their full strength squad).
Championship tournament
Year Host Final Third place match Winner Score Runner-up 3rd place Score 4th place 1988This tournament was not run by FIRA Details France France8 - 6 Great Britain Netherlands10-6 Italy1995 Details Italy Spain22 - 6 France Italy23 - 19 Netherlands1996 Details Spain France15 - 10 Spain Italy11 - 6 Netherlands1997 Details France England24 - 8 Scotland Spain25 - 8 France1998 No tournament due to the 1998 Rugby World Cup1999 Details Italy France13 - 5 Spain Scotland15 - 13 England2000 Details Spain France31 - 0 Spain England40 - 20 Scotland2001 Details France Scotland15 - 3 Spain England34 - 23 France2002 Details Italy Italy35 - 24 Sweden Germany12 - 10 Netherlands2003 Details Sweden Spain16 - 10 France Sweden15 - 10 Italy2004 Details France France8 - 6 England Scotland11 - 10 Wales2005 Details Germany Italy22 - 3 Netherlands Sweden17 - 5 Germany2006 Details Italy Italy28 - 7 Netherlands Russia - Sweden2007 Details Spain England27 - 17 France Spain37 - 0 Netherlands2008 Details Netherlands England12 - 6 Wales Ireland12 - 12(try count) France2009 Details Sweden Sweden Joint winners Scotland Netherlands Joint third Spain2010 Details France Spain 31-13 Italy Netherlands 47-19 Sweden2011 Details Spain England A 5-3 Spain France A 17-7 Italy A2012 Details Italy England Pool France ItalyPool Spain 2013 Details Spain Spain WC QF Samoa 2014 Details Belgium Netherlands 12-3 Belgium Russia 34-21 Switzerland2015 Details Switzerland Belgium 50-20 Switzerland Russia 41-15 Czech Republic2016 Details Spain Spain 35-7 Netherlands Russia 74-5 Belgium 2017 No tournament due to the 2017 Rugby World Cup 2018 Details Belgium Spain 40-7 Netherlands Germany 24-5 Belgium 2019 Details Various Spain 54-0 Netherlands Russia 22-5 Germany2020 Details Various SpainRound-robin Russia Netherlands 2021 No tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic2022 Details Various SpainRound-robin Russia Netherlands 2023 Details Various SpainRound-robin Netherlands Sweden 2024 Details Various SpainRound-robin Netherlands Portugal Round-robin Sweden2025 Details Various SpainRound-robin Netherlands Portugal Round-robin Sweden2026 Details VariousTBDRound-robinTBDTBD Round-robinTBD
Performance of nations
All tournaments + Teams reaching the top four Team Titles Runners-up Third place Fourth place12522541351213134175412311133112112111111522211
Official FIRA tournaments - 4 titles, 3 runners-up, 1 third, 3 fourths - 4 titles, 1 runner-up, 2 thirds, 1 fourth - 3 titles, 5 runners-up, 3 thirds - 3 titles, 1 runner-up, 2 thirds, 2 fourth - 2 titles, 1 runner-up, 2 thirds, 1 fourth - 1 title, 1 runner-up, 2 thirds, 2 fourth - 2 runners-up, 2 third, 4 fourths - 1 runner-up, 1 fourth - 1 third, 1 fourth - 1 third - 1 third
"European Championships" - 5 titles, 1 runner-up, 2 fourths - 2 titles, 1 runner-up, 1 third, 1 fourth - 1 title, 3 runners-up, 1 third - 1 runner-up, 2 thirds, 1 fourth - 1 runner-up, 1 fourth - 1 runner-up - 2 thirds - 1 third, 2 fourths - 1 third
Trophy tournament
Year Host Final Third place match Winner Score Runner-up 3rd place Score 4th place 2000 DetailsSpain French Flanders Pool Netherlands GermanyN/A—2001 DetailsFrance SwedenPool Netherlands GermanyPool Belgium2003 DetailsNetherlands Netherlands19 - 12 Germany Norway10 - 10(3 - 2 penalties) Denmark2004 DetailsFrance NetherlandsPool Germany NorwayPool Denmark2005 DetailsBosnia and Herzegovina RussiaPool Norway Bosnia and HerzegovinaN/A—2007 DetailsBelgium French Universities13 - 7 Belgium Germany15 - 0 Romania2008 DetailsNetherlands Russia31 - 14 French Defence Germany19 - 15 Belgium2012 DetailsSweden Sweden10 - 3 Netherlands Russia45 - 17 Finland2018–19 Details Various Czech RepublicRound-robin Switzerland FinlandN/A—2019–20 DetailsVarious Czech RepublicRound-robin Switzerland SwedenRound-robin Finland2021–22 DetailsVarious SwedenRound-robin Czech Republic SwitzerlandRound-robin Finland 2022–23 DetailsVarious PortugalRound-robin Finland GermanyRound-robin Czech Republic2024–25 DetailsVarious BelgiumRound-robin Germany Finland N/A—2025–26 DetailsVarious TBDRound-robinTBDTBDN/A—
Performance of nations - 4 titles, 3 runners-up - 3 titles, 1 runner-up - 2 titles, 3 third - 1 title, 2 runners-up, 2 fourths - 1 title, 1 runners-up, 1 fourth French Flanders - 1 title - 1 title French Universities - 1 title - 2 runners-up, 4 thirds - 2 runners-up, 1 third, 1 fourth - 1 runner-up, 3 thirds French Defence - 1 runner-up - 1 third, 2 fourth - 1 third - 2 fourths - 1 fourth
Conference tournament
Year Host Final Third place match Winner Score Runner-up 3rd place Score 4th place 2024–25 Details Various LatviaRound-robin Romania CroatiaRound-robin Bulgaria2025–26 Details VariousTBDRound-robinTBDTBDRound-robinTBD
See also Women's international rugby
References
External links Rugby Europe website