England, Wales and Scotland abandon individual 7s teams
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - AUGUST 08: Ghislaine Landry of Canada tackles Danielle Waterman of Great Britain during the Women's Bronze Medal Rugby Sevens match between Canada and Great Britain on Day 3 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Deodoro Stadium on August 8, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
England, Wales and Scotland’s 7s teams have decided to play as Great Britain throughout the World 7s series, abandoning their individual union’s teams.
Great Britain first played together in Rio 2016 as the sport made its debut in the Olympic games, with the men winning a silver medal, and the women’s team finishing fourth after losing the semi-final.
The three nations then teamed up again for Tokyo 2020, both narrowly losing their bronze medal matches.
Between the two Olympics the RFU had withdrawn its funding for its 7s team, with the void filled by the National Lottery, but soon after GB men were runners-up in the truncated 2021 World 7s series, they made a u-turn as they re-instated funding and fielded an independent team from round three.
But now, after a disappointing performance from England in the 2021/22 World 7s women’s series where the women finished third from bottom in ninth, and each of the three nations in the men’s series, where England sit eighth, Scotland 12th, and Wales 15th and in the relegation zone, they have taken the decision to merge for good.
Wales won’t be relegated however, and nor will Japan in 16th, as the three team merger leaves room for two teams to come up without any coming down.
Former Premiership Winning Harlequins boss and RFU performance director Conor O’Shea said: “A huge amount of work has gone on behind the scenes to get to this stage and I would like to thank our colleagues at Scottish Rugby and the Welsh Rugby Union along with Nigel Cass (competitions director at World Rugby) for their collaboration.
“This is a seminal day for sevens, it is the right way forward, giving Team GB a real opportunity to go to the Olympic games with the right preparation, to compete on a level playing field with other sevens programmes and most importantly enables us all to give certainty to staff and players as to the future of the programme.
“We will be working hard now to finalise the structures to support GB so we are ready to start the 2023 World Rugby Sevens Series with a bang moving towards Paris 2024 and beyond.”
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