Belgium ready to take final step in women's Sevens Challenger

Madrid will always hold a certain significance for Belgium women’s sevens head coach Emiel Vermote.

It was in the Spanish capital that Vermote staged his first training camp as Belgium coach in 2019 and more than five years later he is hoping to navigate a route back there for the HSBC SVNS Play-off tournament.

The top four teams in the overall standings at the end of this weekend’s World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2024 finale in Krakow will confirm their participation in the SVNS Play-off at Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano between 31 May – 2 June.

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In Madrid, the qualified teams will compete against the bottom four from HSBC SVNS 2024 – Japan, Brazil, South Africa and Spain – for the four available spots on next year’s circuit.

Belgium arrived in Krakow this week sitting third in the standings, above Uganda on points difference, and with a four-point cushion to Kenya in fifth.

Having guided Belgium to a fifth-place finish in the opening Challenger tournament in Dubai and a bronze medal in Montevideo in March, Vermote is confident his players can finish the job in Poland.

“Our goal is to express ourselves in the best possible way in this last Challenger tournament,” Vermote told RugbyPass.

“Our focus is to really find the consistency that we’ve shown throughout the Challenger series competition and then I think we have everything in our hands now.”

An example of the belief Vermote has in his squad perhaps comes in the fact that part of their preparation for Krakow was again spent on a training camp in Madrid last month.

“That allowed us to train with the Spanish team but also get a feel for the culture there, enjoy the city and let the expectation grow a little bit of us playing in [Madrid],” Vermote explained.

“OK, it was the stadium of the national teams not the stadium of Atletico Madrid, where the sevens will be, but it was still a great experience for us to grow and really have that focus set on qualifying for the Madrid championships.

“To make a goal that we set at the beginning of the season more tangible.”

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The challenge facing Belgium and Vermote this weekend, although by no means easy, does look to be quite straightforward.

China dominated in both Dubai and Montevideo to amass a perfect 40 points heading into this final tournament and leave them needing only to reach the quarter-finals this weekend to confirm their place in Madrid.

Argentina, meanwhile, enjoy a 10-point cushion over fifth place, meaning they will also be on a flight to Spain barring an epic stumble.

That leaves Belgium, Uganda, Kenya and Poland – realistically, Thailand have too much ground to make up – to fight over the remaining two tickets.

For Belgium the good news – or bad, depending on your perspective – is they line up in Pool C alongside both Kenya and the hosts. Win those matches on day one and their position is strengthened heading into the knockout stages.

“We are in the pool with Poland and Kenya,” Vermote said. “Uganda is behind us [in fourth] and then you have Kenya and Poland in the final ranking. For me at least, that’s in the back of our mind.”

Although he cautioned against “over analysing”, the Belgium coach added: “Without going too much into these big pressure moments, I think the situation we’re in right now, it’s not comfortable, but it’s a really good position to be in.

“We have everything in our own hands. If we win the games against direct opponents, we’re in a good position to qualify and achieve our goal to qualify for Madrid.

“My personal ambition is always getting this team in that winning mindset [and] really creating that winning culture. My dream really is to win a tournament with this team.”

Vermote says his players are in “the best shape they’ve ever been in” and they will take heart from the fact they have beaten both Kenya and Poland previously in this year’s competition.

However, the coach knows the hosts will be a different proposition on their own patch, especially as they are to contest the final match on day one.

“To play the last game of a competition day,” he added, “maybe it’s just personal but for me it’s like one of these things you live for, to close the stadium and to have that last game against the home nation.”

To make it a happy memory, though, Belgium must overcome the heartache of last year’s European Games at this venue, Henryk Reyman’s Municipal Stadium, when their Olympic dreams were extinguished by a fourth-placed finish.

If they are able to do that, and book their ticket to Madrid, then Vermote believes that will be an achievement worth celebrating. But he is keen to stress that qualifying for the SVNS Play-off is not success in itself.

“If we can be top four in the second division of the world series, that means that we’ve shown consistency now over three tournaments,” he said.

“Which is completely new to us and that would be really hats-off to the girls and their ability to push their process, change the training process all the time and bring the quality.

“So, it would be a nice confirmation of all the hard work that has been done if we can qualify for Madrid. But I’m going to be very honest, the goal was not to qualify for Madrid.

“The goal is to be in competition to get to the world series and that is where I think we can once again show the ability of this team.”