Tom Mitchell in action for England Sevens

England Sevens will face Australia, Russia and France in the pool stages on the opening day of the Glasgow Sevens this weekend (9-10th May).

Head Coach Simon Amor has made two changes to the squad that secured his side’s first tournament victory on this season’s HSBC Sevens World Series circuit in Tokyo last month. Richard De Carpentier (Worcester Warriors) and Warwick Lehmert come in for John Brake and Josh Watkins (Worcester Warriors).

The England team lifted the trophy in Japan after beating series leaders South Africa 21-14 in a tightly-fought final.

The win pushed England into the top four of the series rankings ahead of Australia with two tournaments remaining.

Simon Amor said: “It has been a relatively short turnaround time since Tokyo but it has been good with a number of guys who have been out injured getting back into training and have made the competition for places the best it’s been all season.

“We had a good healthy group to select from so the 12 in the squad have worked incredibly hard and are there on merit. It is tough on John Brake and Christian Lewis-Pratt in particular who miss out on selection having trained well over the past few weeks.

“One of the goals of the programme was to win a tournament. The guys have worked hard all year round and their effort and attitude has been outstanding. We have won and lost some close games and the reward of winning a tournament was good for the guys.

“But there were areas we didn’t quite get right which we have been working very hard at addressing and we are making sure we put ourselves in the best place possible to perform in Glasgow.”

On England’s day one opponents he added: “Our pool will be a big challenge. Australia are an excellent team and they have played consistently well all season. They will bounce back after Tokyo and be incredibly strong because they have some very talented players.

“Russia are new to the series so will be an interesting and physical challenge for us and France are one of the most unpredictable sides out there.

“But we just need to focus on ourselves and perform to our potential.”

The tournament will be broadcast live on Sky Sports.

Glasgow squad:
Dan Bibby
Tom Bowen
Phil Burgess
Richard De Carpentier
Alex Gray
Charlie Hayter
Warwick Lehmert
Tom Mitchell (captain)
Dan Norton
James Rodwell
Marcus Watson
Jeff Williams

Day one schedule: 

England v Australia 11.14am
England v Russia 14.20pm
England France 17:53pm