At almost the same moment we pick up stories that reveal two opposing rugby trends.
Let’s start with the happier, personal one: Ellie Boatman has rejoined Trailfinders. That means she becomes the first GB Sevens player to indicate where her immediate future lies.
A crucial passage in her statement is that she is focusing on TF this season. That must mean she does not intend participating in any round of the SVNS Series.
By the purest chance, TF has given more players to the GB 7s squad than any other, including the captain, Emma Uren, Abi Burton, Amy Wilson Hardy, Lisa Thomson, Vicky Laflin and Grace White. All of them were on TF’s books, but – as is the way of the GB 7s set-up – we could never be sure if or when individuals might be made available for PWR matches.
Boatman’s reappearance helps to offset the departure of Abby Dow.
We can be sure that the entire 7s squad, both men and women, have been in deep conversation about their future, ever since the announcement on 23 May that the full-time programme would terminate in July. It had an effect similar to England Rugby’s decision in August 2020 to withdraw contracts from its 7s players. The only positive result that had was to strengthen the Red Roses squad enormously.
The other side of the coin
Then comes news from Scotland that the Union is attempting to revive Sevens. It holds a special place in the national annals, since the first ever tournament was staged at Melrose.
The CE, Alex Williamson, is keen to re-establish GB 7s in something closer to its original form, though he realises he will need to engage the support of the RFU and the WRU to achieve this end.
David Barnes of theoffsideline.com comments on the current “camp and competition” format.
Yet the Scottish Union is willing to take the lead in the initiative. That means, in cold blood, stomping up the costs, or a goodly part of them, depending on the interest the two other unions show.
Williamson claims not to be starry-eyed about the prospects of success, but feels it’s in the interests of Scottish rugby – if no others – to invite a similar response from Cardiff and Twickenham. The Performance Director, David Nucifora, is even more wedded to the idea. But the very basis of their thinking stretches credibility as far as it can.
The RFU has long been cool in its attitude towards the short-version game. The Welsh Union simply does not have the money to throw at an initiative it had so recently agreed to reject. The Chair and the CE, Richard Collier-Keywood and Abi Tierney, have far more urgent matters to attend to.
Nor is Barnes the only Scot to shrug a shoulder. Others have pointed out weaknesses in Murrayfield’s arguments. One major reason for GB 7s’ decline to a part-time operation was precisely the cost – especially when set against playing success, which has proved hard to achieve.
Any rebirth of the combined organization automatically means a reduction of national identity, and GB 7s has come nowhere near to creating the aura of the British and Irish Lions.
At their last outing in mid-June the GB women’s squad took part in the Makarska Sevens in Croatia. They played Belgium, France, Germany and Poland. They lost only the final match against Belgium, 26-29.
Tying two ends of string
The whole confused business comes down to central questions within rugby. Do we support our own national (Scottish, Welsh, English) team, or an amalgamation that exists only at the quadrennial Olympic Games and at the SVNS Series, which studiously avoids taking place in the UK? Furthermore, other leading 7s experts agree that WR’s restructuriing has badly damaged tier-two Sevens nations and has failed to exploit all the commercial advantages it possesses.
Does Sevens exist in its own isolated sphere or an an organic part of the world of rugby? For PWR players the answers have not been clear.
