Directors Update March: 7s Preparations

As we enter our 16th year as a union we do so with a new resolve – to level up our national team preparations to ensure we can compete internationally on a better level than ever before.

As we continue to rise from the ashes of COVID our focus this year is rugby 7s, with competitions looming in June for both the men’s and women’s teams.

Our first priority was to add a rigorous training schedule for national team eligible players to our calendars, starting with monthly training camps and ramping up to weekly sessions to maximize our time playing together.

We posted a sneak peak from one of our training camps as our first ever post on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rugbyestonia/video/7212946167179529478

Additionally we entered a mens Estonian development team to the Finnish winter 7s championship.

This has meant that Estonia are fielding three teams in the events, Estonia development, Kalev rugby club and the women’s development team. 

The two tournaments so far were Lahti in January, and Järvenpää in February, we have one more to come over the 1st and 2nd of April. 

It continues to be a very productive programme, taking two mens teams shows the growth of the rugby community in Estonia, although a big commitment it was the right decision. 

The Estonia development team are players who will be in the selection process for the Rugby Europe 7’s in June. 

The Kalev team is made up of players some of whom qualify for Estonia along with our club players from around the world, we have players representing seven different countries. 

Lahti 7’s 

Kalev lost all four games but grew in confidence and performance. We were low on backs, but the forwards performed well and will develop from the experience of playing in unfamiliar positions. At times we played some good 7s but an unforced error here and there cost us two tries.  

​​

Estonia development worked very hard, the potential is very good, we will continue to develop and get stronger. The opportunity to play as a team and with different players will make a big difference as we develop. The loss to Helsinki was down to 60 seconds of losing concentration. Overall a respectable third place, Won 3 lost 1. 

Järvenpää 7s 

Our second tournament and we were able to field a more competitive Kalev team with a better balance of backs and forwards, at points we were still our own worst enemy, however the guys fought hard for their first win against Tampere. 

We lost the 1st game to a good team, Marist, the Finland development team who went on to win the tournament. We only had 15 mins to prepare after getting off the bus, always a challenge playing in Finland, we were very competitive v Saimaa and it was very satisfying to beat Tampere. 

Estonia development scored 18 tries in 3 games and some very good team play, genuinely starting to look like a 7’s team. We lost a bit of discipline at times particularly v Helsinki when a yellow card and a loss of concentration cost two tries. I believe we were the best 7’s team, although Marist are very good (Finland development team)

Kalev/Eesti women’s development. 

A different experience for the girls who last year played for other clubs in Finland, this year was the first tournament for the girls as a team from Kalev and they competed well, we still have an inexperienced team made up from players who qualify for Estonia and players who play for Kalev and live in Estonia. 

We showed a good deal of improvement from the Rugby Europe 7’s in June 2022. At times playing good 7s, the only team to score against Warriors and with players who are getting better every week.