Experience to the fore in Scots' sevens squad

Published on Monday 9 May 2011 18:28

SCOTLAND have named a strong squad of proven sevens performers for the final two HSBC World Sevens Series events at Twickenham and Murrayfield at the end of this month.

Head coach Graham Shiel has rewarded the leading players from this season's appearances on the global circuit in forwards Struan Dewar, Michael Fedo and Graham Fisken and backs Fraser Harkness, Andrew Skeen, James Johnstone and Ross Samson.

They have been bolstered by the selection of five players from the team that finished sixth in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi - Lee Jones, Scott Riddell, Stuart McInally, Scott Newlands and top try-scorer Andrew Turnbull - as well as young Edinburgh winger Tom Brown and the more experienced duo of Jim Thompson from Edinburgh and Glasgow's Colin Gregor, arguably Scotland's best internationals sevens player in recent times.

One final addition in an enlarged 16-man squad is Glasgow player Peter Horne who has talent in abundance but has struggled to win regular starts at professional level this season despite being able to play at stand-off, centre and full-back.

The Howe of Fife product did, however, grasp the opportunity to remind Scottish supporters of his terrific sevens ability at the Greenyards last month where he was one of the stand-out performers in the Qube GB Melrose Sevens tournament. Had it not been for stringent SRU/club rules on player availability, Horne and other members of the squad could have been playing in the remaining Borders events or the Legacy Sevens Series.

Despite his request for one or two internationalists being turned down by Scotland coach Andy Robinson, Shiel is happy with the squad he has put together. He said: "I've selected players who have performed well over the first six tournaments and am able to bring in experienced professional players and some proven, world-class sevens players who should complement one another and perform at a high level.

"This larger squad gives us more flexibility with our approach to the last two legs of the series, making selections that reflect performances in both training and the London tournament.

"If this squad plays to its potential we will win games. We have to do the basics well under pressure on the world stage. If we do that then I'm confident we will be strong enough to achieve our day-one objective of a place in the cup quarter-final."

Scotland play the penultimate leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series, the Emirates Airline London Sevens, on Saturday 21 May, and then head north to Murrayfield in the last weekend in May.

At Twickenham, Scotland face 2010 World Series champions Samoa, defending cup holders Australia and Canada on day one, while in the Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens they will again come up against Samoa as well as Fiji and the USA on Saturday, 28 May.• Howe of Fife cruised to their own sevens title at Cupar on Saturday in the penultimate leg of the Legacy Sevens Series, but Stirling County, beaten 36-5 in the semi-finals by the Howe - who went on to thump Kirkcaldy 59-7 in the JR Gray Trophy final - still lead the series going into the last tournament, the Glasgow City Sevens at Cartha Queen's Park this Saturday.

SQUAD

Tom Brown (Edinburgh)

Struan Dewar (Edinburgh)

Michael Fedo (Team Northumbria)

Graham Fisken (West of Scotland)

Colin Gregor (Glasgow)

Fraser Harkness (Selkirk)

Peter Horne (Glasgow)

James Johnstone, Lee Jones, Stuart McInally, Scott Newlands (all Edinburgh)

Scott Riddell (Stewart's Melville), Ross Samson (Edinburgh)

Andrew Skeen (Watsonians)

Jim Thompson, Andrew Turnbull (both Edinburgh)