Jim Thompson back for 7s in France

LONDON Scottish full-back Jim Thompson will return to the Scotland 7s squad this weekend as they travel to Lyon for a Rugby World Cup 7s warm-up tournament.

As well as the former Edinburgh and Scotland A back, coach Stephen Gemmell brings in Edinburgh Accies forwards Nyle Godsmark and Callum Reid and hands the captaincy to top tryscorer Andrew Turnbull. The rest of the squad is made up of full-time professionals and elite development players.

It was confirmed this week that Alex Glashan and Chris Dean, who will be in France, and Neil Herron will be the three Scotland 7s elite development players for 2013/14. Rory Hughes moves to Glasgow Warriors and Lewis and Gregor Young become full-time players.

Gemmell said: “This tournament is important for us in respect of our Rugby World Cup 7s preparations and to give individuals who didn’t have as much involvement with the last two rounds of the HSBC Sevens World Series a chance to stake their claim.”

Scotland play France (10.06am), Germany (11.54am), Portugal (3.10pm) and Italy (4.58pm) tomorrow. They then face Russia at 10.06am on Sunday before moving into the knockout stage.