FIRA Women's European Championship

Infobox sports league
logo=
pixels=50px
caption=
sport=Rugby union
founded=1988
teams=19
country=ruw|BEL; ruw|BIH; ruw|ENG; ruw|FIN; ruw|FRA; ruw|GER; ruw|IRE; ruw|ITA; ruw|KAZ; ruw|LUX; ruw|NED; ruw|NOR; ruw|ROM; ruw|RUS; ruw|SCO; ruw|SER; ruw|SWE; ruw|ESP; ruw|WAL
champion=ruw|ENG

FIRA's Women's European Championship (or - as it is also known - the European nations Cup) is an international rugby union competition contested between women's national teams who are members of FIRA - Association of European Rugby. 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 now divided into two "Pools" - A and B - with the leading nations in Pool A.

In recent years England and France have not tended to send their full national teams to the competition, but have instead sent their "A" sides. The English and French unions would not consider games played by these teams as full internationals - however their opponents generally would.

The winner of tournament held in between the World Cups (every four years) does attract an extra cachet as the major nations enter full squads. As a result there can often be two officially recognised "European Champions" - that year's FIRA winner, and the winner of the previous title in the four year cycle. 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

=Tournaments=

Championship and "Pool A" tournaments

Performance of nations

# - 4 titles, 3 runners-up, 3 fourths
# - 3 titles, 1 runner-up, 2 thirds, 1 fourth
# - 3 titles, 3 third, 1 fourth
# - 2 titles, 4 runners-up, 2 thirds
# - 1 title, 1 runner-up, 2 thirds, 1 fourth
# - 2 runners-up, 5 fourths
# - 1 runner-up, 2 thirds, 1 fourth
# - 1 runner-up, 1 fourth
# - 1 runner-up
# - 1 third, 1 fourth
# - 1 third
# - 1 third

"Pool B" tournaments

Performance of nations

# - 2 titles, 2 runners-up
# - 2 titles
# Flandre - 1 title
# French Universities - 1 title
# - 1 title
# - 2 runners-up, 4 thirds
# - 1 runner-up, 2 fourths
# - 1 runner-up, 2 thirds
# French Defence - 1 runner-up
# - 1 third
# - 2 fourths
# - 1 fourth

External links

* [http://www.fira-aer-rugby.com/index.php FIRA website]

ee also

*Women's international rugby