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England sevens out to impress on home soil ahead of Delhi

20th May 2010

England sevens captain Ben Gollings says his team will be out to impress on home soil at this weekend’s London Sevens ahead of the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games.
 
England, who were silver medallists in the sevens tournaments at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games, are aiming to retain the London Sevens trophy they won last year.
 
First they must battle their way out of a tough pool, where they are drawn with Australia, Scotland and Russia at the feast of sevens action at Twickenham.
 
Gollings, who was a member of England’s Melbourne 2006 team and is the IRB sevens all-time highest points scorer, said, "Winning London last year was such a massive buzz. The potential is there to do it again this weekend.
 
"Things haven't always gone our way this season and we have a tough pool with Russia, Scotland and Australia, so I don't think we will be looking any further than that. But with October's Commonwealth Games on everyone's minds, I'm sure the boys will be going all out to impress.
 
"Twickenham is always a special place to play rugby, but for us getting to play sevens in front of a home crowd and our family and friends is awesome and I can't wait!
 
England Sevens head coach Ben Ryan said: "We have a strong side, we have some very exciting players and we're going to do everything we can to defend London.
 
"In London it's a bit more personal, we only get one home game a year and for the next however many years I want to make sure this is a priority tournament and we win it every time."

England beat New Zealand 31-26 in the final to win last year’s London Sevens.

The London Sevens is the penultimate stage of the IRB 2009/2010 Sevens World Series.

The action gets underway at 10.30am on Saturday (22 May) with the pool games and the competition reaches its climax on Sunday 23 May, when again, the action starts at 10.30am.

England’s pool D games on Saturday are:
England v Russia (kick off 1.04pm)
England v Scotland (kick off 4.10pm)
England v Australia (kick off 7.28pm)