Scotland to join forces with England and Wales in GB Sevens team

Scotland will join together with England and Wales to compete as a Great Britain Sevens team for the 2021 season ahead of the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Scotland centre Mark Bennett was part of the GB squad which won the silver medal in the men's rugby sevens at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. Picture: Pascal Guyot/AFP via Getty Images

Funding from a commercial partnership with the National Lottery means men’s and women’s GB sides will take part in the HSBC World Sevens Series in the build-up to next summer’s Olympics and then will continue for the climax of the 2021 season post-Tokyo.

Initial selection for the teams will happen shortly and the squads will then come together at the start of February.

Scotland’s men’s sevens side will reconvene at the end of the 2021 campaign, when preparations will begin for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

In the meantime, those Scotland sevens players who are not elected for the GB squad could find themselves in limbo. Contracted sevens specialists have been furloughed this year, although some have signed for clubs, with Alec Coombes joining Edinburgh and Dougie Fife moving to the US to play for New England Free Jacks.

Scotland, England and Wales would normally compete separately on the world series stage.

The new funding provides a considerable lift for the sevens game in Britain. The support is via a National Lottery promotional fund, and not money allocated for National Lottery Good Causes or by Camelot.

The GB coaching structure has also been announced, with England’s Charlie Hayter taking a team leader role and working as an assistant coach across men’s and women’s programmes.

Former England and USA assistant Tony Roques takes on the men’s head coach job, with former Scotland Sevens international Scott Forrest remaining in charge of the women’s squad.

Britain won silver in the men’s sevens at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, with Scots Mark Bennett and Mark Robertson part of the squad.

Jim Mallinder, the SRU’s director of performance rugby, welcomed the funding announcement. He said: “The opportunity for our players to be able to put their hands up for potential Olympic selection is something we very much welcome, as part of a GB Sevens squad.

“It is our intention that beyond this season, both of our Scotland 7s programmes remain unaffected by this development and we very much look forward to qualifying for and sending our strongest Scotland 7s squads to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022.”

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