There was some brilliant sevens action in the Stade Pierre Rajon in Bourgoin-Jallieu, France, at the weekend as the girls and boys under-18 Rugby Europe Sevens Championships were played.
In the girls event, six teams - France, Spain, Czechia, Belgium, Germany and Poland - battled it out in a round-robin format.
The second game of the competition on Saturday saw Spain put down a marker with a 46-0 win over Poland and then, next up, France showed they were also a talented team with a 42-7 triumph over Germany.
Spain went on to defeat Belgium 38-0, Czechia 26-17 and Germany 48-0 while France beat Poland 39-0, Belgium 31-0 and Spain 17-12.
All of that meant that the last game of the weekend on Sunday became ‘winner takes all’ between the two nations.
It was, as expected, a cracking sevens tie with Spain eventually coming out on top 31-17.
That meant that they finished the event with five wins from five and 15 points from 15 while France were second on 13 points after four wins and a loss.
Three wins and two losses gave Czechia 11 points and third spot while Belgium were fourth, Germany were fifth and Poland were sixth.
The boys event was played in a different format, but it also came down to a final match between the same two countries.
Twelve nations battled it out here and, up first, they were in three pools of four.
France, Spain and Portugal topped their sections with three wins from three respectively.
In the quarter-finals, France and Spain kept up that form with comfortable wins over Switzerland and Lithuania, but Portugal were beaten by Germany at that stage 19-10. In the other last eight tie, Belgium beat Czechia 21-5.
France were just getting better and better in front of a home crowd and they thumped Belgium 61-0 in the first semi-final.
Spain also looked good in their last four 29-7 win over Germany, but they knew they would have to go some to get the better of France in the final. And so it proved, France just continuing the form they had shown all weekend to win 26-5 in that final and lift the silverware.
Germany took third with a 33-17 win over Belgium in the bronze match while Czechia were fifth, Portugal sixth, Lithuania seventh, Switzerland eighth, Romania ninth, Poland 10th, Luxembourg 11thand Latvia 12th.
By Gary Heatly