The Scotland 7s squad for the final two legs of the IRB Sevens World Series in London and Edinburgh is the strongest he’s had all season, but with Kenya, Fiji and the USA lying in wait at Twickenham this weekend, Scotland 7s coach Stephen Gemmell remains wary of the threat all three pose.
“It’ll be very tough,” he said. “We’ve beaten them all in the past but to be fair they’ve beaten us as well. We need to make sure we get our game right and I’m confident, with the squad of players we’ve got, that we can do that.”
Tickets for each day of the Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens Festival - priced at £15 for adults, £10 for students and senior citizens and £5 for under 18s – are available to purchase by logging onto www.scottishrugbytickets.com, by calling the Ticket Hotline on 0871 200 1511 or in person from the Murrayfield Ticket Centre (open 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday).
Scotland’s squad contains seven players that featured at the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Dubai as well as full internationalists Thom Evans and Ally Hogg.
With such experience at the highest level of the sevens and XV-a-side games, Gemmell is optimistic the crowd in London and Edinburgh will see the Scots finish the season on a high.
“We’ve got real quality in terms of sevens experience and we’re bringing in a wealth of international experience in Ally Hogg as well as pace with Thom Evans.
“It’s probably the quickest squad we’ve ever been able to put out but we’ve got to match that with the ability to win ball and certainly our forwards will be able to do that.”
In order to take real strides forward, Gemmell believes that consistency coupled with a low error count will prove to be the undoing of Scotland’s opponents, especially with such creative playmakers and deadly finishers in the Scots’ ranks.
“It’s playing for 14 minutes every tie and being able to react to what happens in front of you.
“The nature of sevens is that the margin for error is very small. We need to keep our error count low, make sure that when we’ve got ball we make good use of it and with the opposition we’ve got, we re-organise quickly and make good tackles.
“We’ve got good playmakers in Colin Gregor and Mike Adamson and then if we can get the ball out wide to Thom [Evans] and Turny [Andrew Turnbull] we’ll certainly have a real go.”
Welcoming the return of Evans, who made his case for full international honours on the sevens circuit as well as the introduction of 48-times capped Ally Hogg, who will complete a full set of representative caps this weekend, Gemmell added: “He [Thom] has played before and the advantage of bringing players like Thom and Ally in is they are experienced rugby players so they get hold of the game very early.
“I’m confident with how these guys have fitted in over the last couple of days in training. We’ll have a real go in London then we’ve got Edinburgh to look forward to the following weekend.”
Scotland 7s squad to compete at the final two events on the IRB Sevens World Series in London (23 and 24 May) and Edinburgh (30 and 31 May): Scott Forrest (Ayr)* CAPTAIN, Mike Adamson (Glasgow Warriors), Thom Evans (Glasgow Warriors), Roddy Grant (West of Scotland)*, Colin Gregor (Glasgow Warriors), Allister Hogg (Edinburgh), John Houston (Edinburgh), Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh), Hefin O’Hare (Glasgow Warriors), Colin Shaw (Glasgow Warriors), Jim Thompson (Edinburgh), Andrew Turnbull (Edinburgh)

* = Member of Scottish Rugby’s Contracted National Academy

London Pool C: Fiji, Kenya, USA, Scotland

Scotland 7s Pool C fixtures on day one (Saturday 23 May) of the Emirates Airline London Sevens: Kenya v Scotland (kick-off 12:41pm), Fiji v Scotland (kick-off 3:25pm), USA v Scotland (6:21pm)

Edinburgh Pool C: Kenya, England, Canada, Scotland

Scotland 7s’ Pool C fixtures on day one (Saturday 30 May) of the Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens Festival: England v Scotland (kick-off 12:09pm), Kenya v Scotland (3:13pm), Canada v Scotland (6:56pm)

This article was posted on 22-May-2009, 22:12 by Hugh Barrow.