ACCURACY AND BELIEF KEY TO SCOTS’ PERFORMANCE IN ADELAIDE
Friday, 01 April 2011

Scotland 7s are just one day away from the sixth leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series which climaxes, in two tournaments time, at Murrayfield at the end of May.
In the Adelaide leg, Scotland will face Series championship chasing England, seventh placed Argentina and Commonwealth Games Bowl winners Papua New Guinea (PNG) in Pool B.
After the double disappointment suffered in Hong Kong, where Scotland narrowly missed out on the Cup quarter-final on day one before being knocked out of the Bowl quarter-final by Japan on day two, the Scots are keen to show some week-two form as they have in previous tournament pairings, lifting the Bowl in South Africa and Las Vegas after disappointments in Dubai and Wellington.
Crucial to these improvements is the opportunity to train and play together as a complete unit for a prolonged period, with set-piece elements like restarts and the lineouts featuring heavily in the week’s preparations.
Tickets for this fast and furious Edinbugh 7s are on sale now and are priced from ?5 for under-18s, ?10 for students and senior citizens and ?20 for adults. All tickets are ANY DAY tickets – valid for one day of your choice, either Saturday 28 May or Sunday 29 May.
Scotland 7s head coach, Graham Shiel, said: “The more time we have together the better prepared the players will become. It’s tough on us because we’re doing more than most in the week leading up to the tournament but the players respond well, work hard and don’t shrug their responsibilities.
“We’ve worked on the areas we struggled with in Hong Kong. Without the ball it’s a difficult game to play so winning kick-off, scrum and lineout ball has certainly been addressed in training this week.
“We need more possession with which we can challenge and put points on the board. We were scoring points last week but need a stronger and more resistant defence to compete hard at the latter stages of games.
“England are currently one of the two form teams of the tournament. We know they’re very good from 1-12 and don’t have too many weaknesses so we really have to play well, be accurate and keep possession.
“It’s important for us to get a good start, play well and use the elements of that performance in games two and three against Argentina and PNG.
“We have to concentrate on ourselves and play to the best of our ability, as individuals and a team. We have the ability to beat these teams but our performance ambitions are two-fold: it’s about controlling what we can control, like the execution and accuracy of our core skills, and the belief in our ability.”
Series leaders New Zealand head Pool A with the eight-time World Series winners taking on Hong Kong Shield winners Kenya, Wales and the first of the regional qualifiers, Cook Islands.
USA Sevens runners-up Fiji head Pool C and face three tough matches against host nation Australia, USA and Tonga.
Having backed up their Las Vegas Cup victory (their first since winning in Adelaide in April 2009) with the Hong Kong Plate, a resurgent South Africa head Pool D and face defending Adelaide and World Series champions Samoa as well as France and Hong Kong Bowl runners-up Japan.
The eight-event HSBC Sevens World Series will take its unique brand of entertainment to the UK, first landing in London and then travelling north to Edinburgh for the Series finale at Murrayfield stadium on 28 and 29 May 2011.
Day one of the Adelaide Sevens, Saturday 2 April
England v Scotland (kick-off 12.37pm)
Argentina v Scotland (kick-off 4.05pm)
Scotland v Papua New Guinea (kick-off 6.10pm)
Day two of the Adelaide Sevens, Sunday 3 April
Scotland’s opponents in the day two knockout rounds are dependant on their performance on day one
Scotland squad for Hong Kong and Adelaide Sevens: Mike Adamson (Glasgow Hawks), Tom Bury (Boroughmuir), Graham Fisken (West of Scotland), Michael Fedo (Team Northumbria), Finlay Gillies (Glasgow Warriors elite development/Currie), Fraser Harkness (Selkirk), James Johnstone (Glasgow Warriors elite development/Currie), Jonny Macdonald (Cardiff University), Ross Miller (Glasgow Hawks), Ross Samson (Edinburgh Rugby), Andrew Turnbull (Edinburgh Rugby), Andrew Skeen (Watsonians)
2010/11 HSBC Sevens World Series schedule
Dubai, UAE – 3-4 December 2010
George, South Africa – 10-11 December 2010
Wellington, New Zealand – 4-5 February 2011
Las Vegas, USA – 12-13 February 2011
Hong Kong – 25-27 March 2011
Adelaide, Australia – 2-3 April 2011
London, England – 21-22 May 2011
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND – 28-29 MAY 2011
Two days, sixteen nations, 44 matches – one great weekend! For a fifth season the IRB Sevens World Series comes to Murrayfield with the Emirates Airline Edinburgh 7s being the eighth and final leg of a super season of international sevens. Scotland put in a stellar performance at the last event, bringing home the Plate after defeating some of the big hitters on the sevens circuit – Fiji, USA, Wales, South Africa and Argentina.  Samoa were the overall winners in Edinburgh, taking home the Ned Haig Cup, as well as the main IRB Sevens World Series trophy.
Tickets for this fast and furious festival of rugby are on sale now and are priced from ?5 for under-18s, ?10 for students and senior citizens and ?20 for adults. All tickets are ANY DAY tickets – valid for one day of your choice, either Saturday 28 May or Sunday 29 May.

This article was posted on 1-Apr-2011, 13:10 by Hugh Barrow.