England Women’s Sevens head coach James Bailey has named his 12-player squad for the final round of the 2018 Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix Series in Kazan, Russia on 1-2 September.
The tournament, which will be live streamed on RugbyEurope.tv, is the second of two competitions that make up the European series and forms part of the 2017/18 season, with England having finished fourth in the opening leg in Marcoussis, France in June.
England Women’s Sevens’ new recruits Lizzie Adam, Abi Burton, Ellie Kildunne, Celia Quansah, Emma Hardy, Helena Rowland and Emma Uren are all named in the 12-player squad.
Adam and Quansah, alongside teammates Shauna Bennett and Sophie Tandy, formed part of the squad that travelled to Marcoussis earlier in the summer, losing to Ireland in the bronze medal final.
Joining them is Garnet Mackinder who made her England Women’s Sevens debut alongside Tandy in the final leg of the 2017 HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series in Clermont-Ferrand.
Bailey said: “Our priority for this season is Olympic qualification so we want to ensure that our squad is in the best place possible for the first World Series tournament in Colorado in October.
“Kazan provides us with a great opportunity to develop our younger group of players as we prepare them for playing on the world stage as well as continuing to build depth within our squad.
“The standard of the European competition is incredibly high so this weekend will be a really big challenge but will play a pivotal role as we look ahead to next season.”
England have been drawn in Pool C and will face Italy, Poland and Ireland on day one of the tournament.
England Women’s Sevens squad:
Lizzie Adam
Amy Atkinson
Shauna Bennett
Abi Burton
Samantha Graham
Emma Hardy
Ellie Kildunne
Garnet Mackinder
Celia Quansah
Helena Rowland
Sophie Tandy
Emma Uren
Schedule Pool C, Saturday 1 September (all times in BST and games available via RugbyEurope.tv)
v Italy, 9.06am
v Poland, 11.58am
v Ireland, 2.28pm
Courtesy of the RFU
