Last weekend Saturday June 8th and Sunday June 9th saw the Men’s European Rugby 7’s tournament in Belgrade.
This was the Rugby Europe Conference Cup. Cyprus where drawn in pool B along with Monaco, Finland and Liechtenstein.
With 16 teams in the competition, the top 2 Countries progressing through to the Cup knock out stages and the teams finishing 3rd/4th playing in the plate.
Cyprus sporting their new slick 7’s kit with newly appointed assistant manager George Agathocleous aka the Cyprus Beast supporting Mike Maratheftis also newly installed 7’s captain Vaki Antoniou.
First up was Liechtenstein; Cyprus had a great start winning the game 24-12. The second game against Finland had mixed fortunes Cyprus being 14-10 up with a minute to spare, making an un-characteristic error in the 3 man scrum losing the ball to Finland who scored in the corner, losing 14-15. The last game that our Mouflons should have won ending in a draw 21-21 which allowed Finland to qualify and go through to the Cup knock out stages.
Cyprus progressed through to the plate along with Liechtenstein. First up where Slovenia a known Country whom they played and beat in the Conference South 2 division the season before last when they secured promotion. The score Cyprus 33- Slovenia 14. Next up Serbia, another known outfit whom our boys also played. This was a closer fought game but again winning 19-7.
The final for the plate was against Austria whom they beat comfortably 22 -5. This meant that Cyprus finished with a very respectable overall 9th place.
The overall winners of the Cup were Hungary who are promoted to the Trophy series which is the next tier up.
They like to give a special to their sponsors Brookcourt Collaborative Solutions, Trinity Insurance Brokers, River Group, Shadeports, Black Rocks Marketing, The Keg and Barrel, Physique and our Kit sponsors VX-3 whom without their continued support, entry to this competition would not be possible.
Readers can re live the games by logging into http://www.rugby-europe.eu/competitions.
Peter Antoniou
