Andorra Rugby Fan Club

Andorra 41-0 Luxembourg

A cracking start to the tournament

Sadly no news from the women in Belgium. I have managed to find out Germany have won three of their games convincingly but that's it for now!

Anyone got any news?

The following 20 man squad was announced on 29th May 2008 for the WCQ tournaments.

Paul Alieu - David Kirikashvili - Toni Carmona - Peter Ambor - Gerard Soteras - Jonathan Garcia - Esteve Perez - Marc Abello - Renaud Calvel - Roger Fite - Marc Gispert - Josep Magallon - Sergi Lucas - Miquel Barbolla - Kim Jordan - Emmanuel Sarti - Benjami Taurinya - Flavien Sayo - Maxim Taurinya - Gerard Gimenez

Andorra (women) are off to Belgium for the second stage of the WCQ. 10 teams are already pre-qualified with 3 from the first stage joining them. Andorra get one shot to get in the last three and qualify for the final. Frankly it looks a bit tough but second in the group would lead to a place in the last four. Then they would need to win one of their last two games.

They are in Pool A with Luxembourg, Norway, Malta, Moldova and Switzerland.

Norway have been played twice in the same tournament in 2006 (won the group hame, lost the 7th place game). Malta were played (and beaten) in 2006. the others haven't been played before.

Good luck team!!!

diari d’Andorra, and Andorran paper, has expressed an interest in doing a telephone interview. This fan club has already been featured on the excellent Heavens Game.

Hopefully some more recognition will be coming this way soon!!!

Some research has shown that the sevens schedule has been ripped up and thrown away

Andorra now play at

Ostrava - Czech Republic, 14th and 15th June. They are in Group 2 with Belgium, Germany, Serbia and Slovakia (group 1 contains Switzerland, Croatia, Czech Republic and IRB circuit experienced Spain and Portugal)

Porto Carras - Greece, 21st and 22nd June. They are in group 1 with Luxembourg, Israel, Bosnia-Herzogovina and IRB experienced Russia (group 2 contains Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Cyprus and IRB experienced Spain)

Ostrava presents a fantastic chance to get to the last four although Spain or Portugal in the semis will be too much. My prediction is fourth.

Porto Carras probably sees Andorra second in the group with Spain to come. My prediction again is fourth.

Can we do it? Two fourth positions will probably be enough to qualify for the finals and I think tournaments on consecutive weeks will help us.

Go Els Isards!!!

Now all eyes turn to Zagreb for the sevens.

Andorra will be battling with hosts Croatia for fourth place. It is likely that two fourth places would be enough to get to the final.

May 31st and June 1st - the same days as the last IRB world event at Edinburgh

Poland P8 W7 L1 Pts 22
Latvia P8 W5 L3 Pts 18
Croatia P8 W4 L4 Pts 16
Malta P8 W2 L6 Pts 12
Andorra P8 W2 L6 Pts 12

So next year it will be Division 3A - Sweden are coming in the opposite direction. Armenia and Switzerland will be there, and Serbia or Denmark (one will go down, probably Serbia). Coming up from 3B will be Lithuania.

Sadly it was a score too far - Andorra tried hard but couldn't make it. After going behind early on they battled back well to lead 17-16. Some poor timewasting by the Malta hooker (he has one very clean ball!) was met with some shocking thrown items from the crowd.

If the coward responsible reads this - HANG YOUR HEAD IN SHAME! Rugby is a game for gentleman. It actually looked like one of those large (7 pint?) beer kegs which could have hit anyone including an Andorran and it would have hurt.

A good last push for the line was not to be despite one maul going over it. Just as well for the kicker - now that would have been pressure!

Andorra have lost out on the head to head and slip down a division.

Final score - Andorra 17-16 Malta

I will publish the league table once it is drawn up