A draft schedule for the 2012 women´s season has been released by the turneringsutvalg. The NorgesCup format for both sevens and tens has been retained, with Bergen, Stavanger and Oslo set to host sevens tournaments in the spring, and Bergen and Oslo a tens tournament each in the autumn...

Trondheim will host an indoor tournament in early March, followed by Vallhall.  Including NM7s, to be held in Bergen in the end of June, there will be six sevens tournaments held in Norway between March-June 2012.

The question remains – by how much can the standard of women´s rugby improve if we continue to hold so many tournaments in Norway? Whilst it is great to see increased activity within Norwegian women´s rugby, the level is not going to increase significantly from playing against the same teams in 6 different tournaments.

One option is to try and increase international participation in Norwegian tournaments. Touring sides may be interested in tournaments in Norway, but it requires a large amount of work in order to provide a good offer. The large expense of being in Norway is often something that travelling teams will find unrealistic. As a start, an international tournament should be aimed for in Oslo, where teams from abroad have better access to cheap transportation. But rather than asking Oslo to arrange an international tournament alone, all women´s clubs should try and assist in some way. After all, a home tournament attended by touring sides will benefit us all.

The other option is to remove some of the home legs of the sevens season to open up financially for travel opportunities to overseas competitions. Travelling to London is often less expensive than, for example, travelling to/from Trondheim. Many teams travel to Copenhagen Sevens, but given that this is after seven-a-side competition in Norway, it´s use in developing the standard of rugby in Norway is limited. Rather than spending money travelling within Norway to play the same teams, clubs should be encouraged to travel to other tournaments where they will play more varied opposition. It was through high exposure to international tournaments in 2008 and 2009 that BSI Rugby ended up winning against Oslo 52-0, followed by a 42-0 victory against NTNUi in the final of the 2009 NM7s. Increasing the game experience of ALL players in Norway will lead to a better competition in Norway, and a better national team.

A side effect of removing some Norwegian tournaments might be to increase participation in those that remain. What is better – to have high participation (Oslo/Bergen sending two teams to a few away tournaments) in a few tournaments, or clubs struggling to send a full team to six different tournaments?

Of course, not all teams can travel independently to an international tournament. Should we be more open to “joining forces” to travel giving more players an opportunity to improve? An idea for this would be to have a Barbarians team from Norway travel to Sunshine 7s. The national team appear to be using this as a preparation tournament, so the Barbarians team would be players from below national team level, leading to great development of newer players. The question would be how to organise such a team.

What are your thoughts about the extended women´s season? How do you think we can better improve the standard of women´s rugby in Norway?  Would you, as a player or club, be interested in a joint team to an international tournament?