SIMON AMOR NAMES SIDE FOR 2018/19 WORLD SERIES OPENER
Head of England Sevens Simon Amor has named his side for the opening round of the 2018/19 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series which takes place in Dubai on 30 November – 1 December, broadcast live on Sky Sports Arena.
The 12-man squad contains eight players who were instrumental to England’s silver medal success at the Rugby World Cup Sevens held in San Francisco earlier this year, including Harry Glover who was named breakthrough player of the tournament.
Captain Tom Mitchell will be joined by a number of experienced names including all-time leading try scorer Dan Norton who has amassed 299 World Series tries in his England Sevens career to date.
After missing out on selection for the World Cup due to injury, Dan Bibby, Tom Bowen and Ethan Waddleton will each make their return for England in Dubai.
Representing the England Sevens academy in the opening round of this season’s World Series are Charlton Kerr and Will Muir who both have experience playing on the world stage with Kerr first featuring on the World Series in March 2017 and Muir at the World Cup this summer before signing a full-time contract with the England squad.
Commenting ahead of Dubai, Amor said: “After a long pre-season everyone’s really excited to get out to Dubai and to get the season up and running.
“We built up some great momentum towards the end of last season which we’re looking to progress this year. The motivation of not getting it quite right in the World Cup final against New Zealand is something that’s driven everyone over the past couple of months.”
On selection Amor added: “We’ve got a very exciting group of fit, young players coming through which is fantastic as it means we have a strong squad to pick from. The amount of talent in this group means that competition for places has been really tough which is incredibly important going into a season with Olympic qualification on the table.”
Drawn in Pool D, England will face Canada, Japan and Australia on day one of the two-day event.
Dubai is the first stage of this season’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series which comprises ten legs, finishing in Paris in June 2019. The World Series is the primary route for qualification for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with the top four ranked teams earning their place. England is the nominated nation for qualifying Team GB in the same way it was for Rio 2016.
“Every team on the World Series will be aiming for Olympic qualification this season and therefore the key thing is going to be consistency – always striving to be your best and bringing the right mindset every single game and every tournament. The standard of competition is immense so we’re really excited to get going.”
Alongside the men’s World Series team will be an England Sevens academy side playing in the Dubai Sevens invitational tournament, coached by former England Sevens captain John Brake.
England Men Sevens squad for Dubai:
Dan Bibby
Tom Bowen
Phil Burgess
Alex Davis
Mike Ellery
Harry Glover
Charlton Kerr
Ollie Lindsay-Hague
Tom Mitchell ©
Will Muir
Dan Norton
Ethan Waddleton
13th man: Richard de Carpentier
England Men Sevens academy squad for Dubai:
Jamie Barden
Richard de Carpentier
George de Cothi
Will Glover
Fergus Guiry
Ben Harris
Joss Linney
Ade Lipede
Ryan Olowofela
Charlie Sawforth
Femi Sofolarin
Tom Walsh
England’s fixtures (all times GMT), Friday 30 November, live on Sky Sports Arena:
England v Canada, 07.14am
England v Japan, 10.58am
England v Australia, 4.37pm
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