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Sweden are not often thought about as one of the top rugby playing nations in Europe but as with the case of Moldova, Georgia, Germany and Belgium, things are changing especially on the 7s field. 

Germany, Belgium and the Swedes will do battle this coming weekend in Heidelberg to gain promotion from Group A of the FIRA 7s competition into the Grand Prix Sevens. The GPS has been taking place over the past couple of weeks and has a couple of legs still to play and features the rugby juggernauts of Wales, France and England with Spain, Portugal and Russia showing their class in Lyon and Moscow.

With Scotland to join the GPS next year, the prize of winning the Group A competition is a seat at the top table of European 7s.

The season started for Sweden in January with 20 players joining coach Kari Tapper for fitness testing and skills sessions which is notably similar to the top nations. As with the case of the major nations, Sweden have been concentrating on the fitness of the side, as this used to be where the smaller nations fell short. As 7s has evolved on the field, as have the athletes that compete in the game but Tapper has made sure this has also been the case with the Sweden 7s team.

Apart from training camps in their home country, the squad had only come together officially to play in 1 tournament before the Group A series began. This was in Amsterdam as the side played as the Swedish Vikings where they were defeated by GPS team the Netherlands early on the 2nd day.

Tapper speaks of 2 major goals this season in being "get the fitness level up and to make the semi-finals in both FIRA tournaments".

It's so far so good for the Swedish side as they made the final of the first tournament in Gdansk 2 weeks ago after a stunning performance against Germany in the semi-final before falling short to the powerful Belgium team.

The performance has given Tapper hope for the coming weekend in Germany "We made the final in Gdansk there we lost against Belgium. The management were happy with the performance and spirit the boys put in, we are all looking forward to next weekend"

Tapper speaks of the mix in the squad, with 3 of his current team playing in the UK Super Sevens Series with Olorun Sharks "Alex Taylor, Andy Daish, Lee Sandberg play some top level 7s in UK and  gain great experience from that is a bonus for the team". 

It is not only the England based players that are making an impact though the coach says "Then we have some talented young players from Sweden as Tobias Borg, Tim Johansson, Robin Fransson" 

It is the talented and very quick off the mark Tobias Borg that will be one to look out for in the future. He scored some eye-catching scores for the Sharks at Bournemouth.

So with just the final tournament in Heidelberg to go, Sweden have only to defeat Belgium and go one step further than they did in Gdansk and they would find themselves in the Grand Prix Sevens next season, going toe to toe with World Series teams across 4 tournaments on the continent.

As sevens continues to grow around the World and specifically Europe, more of these stories will continue to rise but it could be Sweden who are the first of the Scandinavian nations to make an appearance at the top table

The Team

Tomas Arvidsson - Fredriksberg RK, Danmark
Tobias Borg - Enköpings RK, Enköping
Andrew Daish - Old Albanians RFC, Olorun Sharks, England
Robin Fransson - Vänersborgs RK, Vänersborg
Ian Gowland - Stockholm Exiles RFC, Stockholm
Tim Johansson - Enköpings RK, Enköping
Bobby Nave - Enköpings RK, Enköping
Kanogo Njuru- Hammarby IF, Stockholm
Lee Sandberg - North Walsham RFC, Olorun Sharks, England
Alexander Taylor - Nuneaton RFC, Olorun Sharks, England

Kari Tapper -              Coach
David Henley -       ass Coach
Anders Svard -           Team Manager
Irina Dragu -               Team Doctor