Scots opt for 'specialists'
Scotland coach Graham Shiel has opted for specialist players when he named the 12-man squad for the opening rounds of the IRB Sevens World Series – starting at the inaugural Gold Coast tournament in Australia, in a fortnight’s time.
England, Wales and Tonga lie in wait in Pool D of the tournament – which will launch three consecutive weekends of international rugby, with Dubai and South Africa following hot on its heels for the first time in the recently expanded nine-leg World Series.
Shiel has selected the top performers from a pool of 24 players all of whom have a specific sevens focus.
The team consists of seasoned international Sevens campaigners and emerging young professional elite development and sportscotland institute supported club players, who have benefited from specific high performance expertise from the sportscotland institute of sport, and will continue to do so during the competition phase.
“The key thing for these players is that they are an identified group of specific sevens specialists, which is a significant change in the strategy of Scottish Rugby and where sevens sits in the overall programme,” Shiel said.
“The players are committed to this game and therefore bring a far clearer approach to sevens and will become far better versed in the transition from the 15-a-side game and that understanding will, I’m sure, pay dividends as we progress through the season.
“We have some very exciting runners, we have speed, we have power and we have guys who have lot of experience on this stage. It’s a massive challenge but also a huge opportunity for them to perform for Scotland.
“It’s part of the long term development of some of the younger players but also the bigger picture of us being competitive on a more consistent basis, raising our profile on the world stage and being in a position to compete for a medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.”
Scotland: Adam Ashe, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, Struan Dewar, James Eddie, Michael Fedo, James Fleming, Colin Gregor, Peter Horne, Sean Kennedy, Ross Miller, Scott Riddell, Andrew Turnbull.
