England 7s gear up for home leg
Wed, 19 May 2010 18:13
Ben Ryan has named his England Sevens squad for this weekend's superhero themed London Sevens, which includes 2009 hero Micky Young.
Young is back at Twickenham as he returns to the scene of his extra-time try, which led to England taking the 2009 cup title from New Zealand.
Young joins an experienced squad which also includes last year's IRB Player of the Year and winning captain Ollie Phillips, Tom Varndell and the IRB sevens all time highest points scorer Ben Gollings.
Last year Ryan's team lifted the trophy and delighted the record crowd, beating the All Blacks 31-26. This year over 66,000 tickets have already been sold, overtaking last year's attendance and on Sunday the Twickenham crowd will attempt a Guinness World Record for the 'Largest Gathering of Superheroes.
England are currently four points behind fourth place Australia in the IRB Sevens World Series.
Having lost out to the Wallabies 17-12 in Adelaide in March, a week later England turned the tables with a 26-19 victory in the Hong Kong quarterfinal and will be banking on home advantage when the two teams meet in the last pool match of day one.
With just two legs in this year's series remaining, the home side need to pick up full points if they are to overtake Australia and close the 20-point gap between them and third place Fiji.
"We have a strong side, we have some very exciting players and we're going to do everything we can to defend London," Ryan said.
"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 Sevens squad: Greg Barden, Kevin Barrett, Chris Brightwell, Ben Gollings, Ollie Phillips, Tom Powell, James Rodwell, Mat Turner, Tom Varndell, Rob Vickerman, Christian Wade, Micky Young.
Contact Us | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy | Advertising
