Head of England Sevens Simon Amor and England Women’s Sevens head coach James Bailey have named their 12-player squads for the Rugby Europe Men’s and Women’s Sevens Olympic Qualifier Tournaments on 13 and 14 July.
The men compete in Colomiers, France and the women in Kazan, Russia with both tournaments streamed live on the Rugby Europe website.
Abbie Brown and Tom Mitchell each captain unchanged England squads from the last Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix rounds. The women’s side finish fifth in Marcoussis while the men picked up a bronze medal in Moscow. Both were pre-qualifying tournaments for this weekend’s Olympic qualification events.
Day one of the competitions see England face Germany, Sweden and Russia in Pool B of the women’s competition at the Central Stadium in Kazan. While the men’s squad face Lithuania, Georgia and Germany in Pool C at the Stade Michel Bendichou in Colomiers.
Looking ahead to the weekend, Amor said: “With a number of players returning from injury, the competition in Moscow a couple of weeks ago was exactly what we needed and it is great that we can select the same squad for this weekend, this gives us for the first time this season consistency and momentum.
“Our aim is to secure Olympic qualification by winning the tournament and we are both excited and confident about the opportunity this weekend and looking forward to taking our 1st steps on the ladder on Saturday.”
Speaking about the women’s event, Bailey added: “It has been a good couple of weeks for us as a squad since Marcoussis and we’ve been preparing well for this Olympic qualification tournament. We’ve had time to review what went well in France and also to look at where we can make some improvements as we head out to Kazan.
“We know it will be extremely competitive again this weekend but we’ve been able to keep consistency with the squad selection which gives us good momentum. There are lots of high-quality opposition, but we travel to Russia in a strong place and with confidence.”
The winners of these two tournaments will qualify directly for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. England is the nominated nation to qualify on behalf of Great Britain. The teams ranked second and third will be put through to participate in the world repechage tournament organised by World Rugby.
England squads for the Rugby Europe Men’s and Women’s Sevens Olympic Qualifier Tournaments:
Women’s
Holly Aitchison
Claire Allan
Abbie Brown ©
Heather Fisher
Deborah Fleming
Megan Jones
Ellie Kildunne
Alex Matthews
Celia Quansah
Helena Rowland
Emma Uren
Amy Wilson Hardy
Men’s
Jamie Barden
Phil Burgess
Richard de Carpentier
Will Edwards
Mike Ellery
Harry Glover
Ben Harris
Charlton Kerr
Ollie Lindsay-Hague
Tom Mitchell ©
Will Muir
Dan Norton
Women – Pool B, streamed live on Rugby Europe website
England v Germany KO 10:28 BST
England v Sweden KO 13:13 BST
England v Russia KO 16:20 BST
Men – Pool C, streamed live on Rugby Europe website
England v Lithuania KO 11:00 BST
England v Georgia KO 13:45 BST
England v Germany KO 16:52 BST
