Scottish seven hope to profit from Murrayfield factor in IRB finale

Published on Monday 25 May 2009 22:51

AFTER their best ever IRB World Series performance in London on Sunday, when they reached the semi-finals of the Cup competition for the first time ever, the Scottish Sevens team returned home yesterday to become tourists in their own country ahead of the last leg of the series at Murrayfield this weekend.

The Pipe Major in full Highland regalia who met the squads as they arrived at Edinburgh Airport might not have provided the same novelty value for the Scots as he did for the other competing teams, but the players were more than willing to pose for photographs knowing that raising the profile of this weekend's event can only help them.

"Home advantage made a massive difference to England when we played them in the Cup semi-final on Sunday," said Stephen Gemmell, the team coach. "Especially when we got the game back to 14-12 and all of a sudden the crowd really started to get behind them and spurred them on when both teams were beginning to feel the pace. Hopefully the Murrayfield factor will work in the same way for us this weekend.

"There is a real buzz in the squad at the moment. We got our first ever top-four finish at the weekend and we genuinely believe we could have done better. Hopefully our performances in London will encourage people to come along to Murrayfield on Saturday and Sunday with a feeling of optimism, and it is up to us to show them that their faith is not misplaced."

The 12 world ranking points Scotland picked up for reaching the last four of the London event took Scotland up to equal 11th with Wales in the IRB rankings table, and constituted a major step towards retaining their core status for next season.

Core status is bestowed on the top 12 teams in the world at the end of each season and ensures invitations to all eight World Series tournaments the following season.

The pressure, however, is still on Gemmell and his squad, with France, Tonga and Canada all in with a shout of overtaking Scotland this weekend.

Canada in particular will be confident of causing an upset when the two teams meet in their Pool C match on Saturday, having defeated Scotland the last time the two sides met during the Rugby World Cup Sevens in March. The Canadians must make it at least into the semi- finals of the Cup competition this weekend to have any sort of chance of being given core status next year.

"We're in a tough pool, but we are preparing to win," said Canada coach Shane Thompson. "We had a really hard game against Kenya last weekend before losing right at the end, and we have had some good results against Scotland in the past so we have nothing to fear there."

But Gemmell believes his team can surpass their Twickenham achievements. "We will be a better team this weekend, I am fully confident about that," he said.

"Hopefully we'll give the crowd something to get excited about at Murrayfield."