The German men’s national team qualified for the Rugby World Cup Sevens for the first time on Sunday after victory in a final qualifying match in Bucharest, Romania.
The team of national coach Clemens von Grumbkow beat Italy 24-7 in the decisive quarterfinals.
The German team, known as the “Wolfpack,” had previously marched through preliminary rounds with three victories in three games against Georgia, hosts Romania and Wales.
Wolfpack benefitted by not having to play European champions Spain and favorites Ireland in this weekend’s qualifiers, which eased their qualification to the World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa from September 9-11.
‘More relieved than happy’
“At the moment we are more relieved than happy. I think it will take a few days to fully comprehend what we have achieved,” Grumbkow said after the win against Italy.
The Germans won one of four World Cup remaining places for men’s and women’s national teams respectively. The other men’s teams to qualify were: Wales, Portugal and Ireland.
Before this weekend, the men’s teams who had already booked their place in Cape Town were: New Zealand, England, South Africa, Fiji, Argentina, USA, France, Scotland, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Canada, Jamaica, Hong Kong, Korea, Uruguay, Chile, Australia, Samoa and Tonga.
Women’s team fails to qualify
Germany’s women’s team, however, missed their chance to progress to Cape Town.
Coach Cieran Anderson’s team, which reached the quarterfinals after three victories in three games, lost to European champions Poland 0-43.
The women’s teams that qualified over the weekend are England, Poland, Spain and Ireland.
Teams from New Zealand, France, Australia, USA, South Africa, Madagascar, Canada, Japan, China, Brazil, Colombia and Fiji had already booked their places in Cape Town.
With material from the Sport-Information-Dienst (SID) news agency.
Edited by: Kieran Burke
