England Sevens name expanded full-time squad for 2012-13

Posted on May 18, 2012 in England Sevens

England Sevens have increased the number of full-time players and the off-field resources available to Head Coach Ben Ryan next season.

The full-time player roster increases from 12 to 16 with new contracts awarded to backs Dan Bibby (UWIC), James Lightfoot-Brown (Exeter Chiefs), Tom Mitchell (Oxford University) (pictured), Marcus Watson (Saracens), Jeff Williams (RC Chateaurenard), and forwards Mike Ellery (Moseley) and Jack Preece (Birmingham Solihull).

Assistant coach Russell Earnshaw now has a full-time post after previously combining his role with that of Director of Rugby at Birmingham Solihull.

Some of the newcomers will appear in European competitions this summer ahead of a busy 2012-13 season which will see the HSBC Sevens World Series followed by the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Moscow next June.

Mitchell, 22, Bibby, 21, Watson, 20, and centre Williams, 23,  all made their England Sevens debuts this season. Mitchell appeared in six tournaments, Watson in five, Bibby in two and Williams in one, scoring a debut try against Australia at last weekend’s Marriott London Sevens.

Lightfoot-Brown, 19 in June, is a former England Under 18 scrum half who joins after spells in the Exeter and London Irish academy ranks. Ellery, 22, is an athletic back row forward in outstanding form in the Championship this season while openside breakdown specialist Preece, 22, captained Bees in National One this season.

Departing are former captain Greg Barden, who has retired, hooker Simon Hunt and wing Nick Royle.

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Dan Norton commits future to England Sevens

Posted on Apr 23, 2012 in emb, England, England Sevens, English Rugby

Leading try scorer Dan Norton has committed himself to England Sevens after signing a new deal with the national side.

The former Gloucester and Bristol wing has scored 33 tries so far in this season’s HSBC Sevens World Series with two more events to come – in Glasgow (May 5-6) and at the Marriott London Sevens (May 12-13).

His tally is six more than his nearest global rivals, New Zealand’s Frank Halai and Samoa’s Paul Perez.

The 24 year-old from Bristol – arguably the fastest man on the world sevens circuit – has scored 81 tries in his international career with only Ben Gollings (220), Richard Haughton (106) and Rob Thirlby (101) ahead of him on England’s all-time list.

“I know there are several clubs who wanted to have him on board, so we’re delighted to have secured his services,” said Head Coach Ben Ryan.

“Dan’s made excellent progress this season, worked hard all over the pitch and deserves the praise that’s come his way for the tries he’s scored. Every coach in the series would love to have him on their side.

“We’re in the second year of our full-time sevens programme now and the benefits are showing throughout the squad in terms of the individual development of each player and the collective understanding of how we want to play.”

Norton said: “I’m really happy to be able to continue what I’m doing. I enjoy the set-up, working with all the players and coaches and the team spirit is great.

“Finishing this season on a high at Glasgow and Twickenham is the immediate goal. Beyond that the next ambitions are to win the HSBC Sevens World Series with England and the Sevens World Cup next summer.

“Going full-time with sevens this season has meant it’s been easy to concentrate on specific parts of my game, and the extra contact time we have has helped our understanding of the game and built a really strong team culture.”

England are fourth in the HSBC Sevens World Series going into the final two legs of the global series.

They face Kenya, the USA and Australia in the pool stages of the Glasgow Sevens stages on May 5-6 with Ryan due to name his squad at the start of next week.

HSBC Sevens World Series Rankings (top 6): 1 New Zealand 128, 2 Fiji 122, 3 South Africa 105, 4 England 104, 5 Samoa 101, 6 Australia 84.

RFU Podcast: Danny Care, Dan Norton, James Rodwell, Gary Street

Posted on Oct 21, 2011 in English Rugby, RFU Podcast

In this week’s RFU Podcast we catch up with fast-recovering England scrum half Danny Care.

The Harlequins No.9 is close to a playing comeback after the disappointment of being ruled out of the Rugby World Cup by a broken toe.

"It was very hard to watch the boys out there," he said. "If we stay together as a squad we can really build on it and in four years time on our home turf hopefully we can win the World Cup,"

He also outlines why he’s supporting the Movember charity campaign for Prostate Cancer Care and men’s health awareness.

Elsewhere we find out about the England Sevens side’s build up to the start of the HSBC Sevens World Series next month.

Leading scorer Dan Norton and forward James Rodwell give their verdict from behind the scenes.

And head coach Gary Street tells us about the upcoming games against France for England Women before they tackle a three-Test series against New Zealand.

There are seven new caps in Street’s squad and he expects them to be fully tested in the passionate encounters in Marseille and Aix-en-Provence.

For the full interviews, check out today’s RFU Podcast. Here you can listen to the weekly podcast or subscribe to iTunes and have it delivered straight to your inbox each week.

Erinle back in an England shirt

Posted on Jul 5, 2011 in English Rugby, Rugby News

Ayoola Erinle is back in an England shirt for the first time in two years for the third stage of the FIRA European Grand Prix Sevens Series.

The former London Wasps, Leicester Tigers and Biarritz centre – capped at senior level against Australia and New Zealand in November 2009 – is one of five changes to the squad for the Barcelona tournament on July 9-10.

Head coach Ben Ryan recalls Chris Brightwell and Andrew Higgins as well as HSBC Sevens World Series regulars Dan Norton, England’s leading try scorer last season, and Simon Hunt.

Wing Higgins, who has more than 100 Aviva Premiership appearances to his credit with Bath, Bristol and Exeter Chiefs, and forward Brightwell, who spent last season with Sale Sharks, both featured in the Lyon victory.

England top the European Grand Prix table after title wins in Lyon and Moscow last month, beating Spain and Portugal in the two finals.  Nick Royle and Christian Lewis-Pratt are the leading try scorer and points scorer in the series so far.

Winning the overall title is one aim but head coach Ryan’s focus is on developing individual and team play, and increasing competition for places with next season’s HSBC Sevens World Series in mind. The changes for Moscow take the total number of players used in the summer series to 17 with more waiting in the wings.

“We’ve made five changes to the Moscow squad and that’s in line with our policy for the series to widen our net and get more players involved,” Ryan said.

“A couple of old hands are back in to break down their games and will have supporting roles, so Dan Norton, for example, will back up Nick Royle. Ayoola Erinle is a free agent and he’s weighing up his options at the moment. He’s got pedigree and he’s potentially a real asset.

“We’re looking at players in different positions and different roles and it’s been good so far. From a coaching point of view this series has been a great test bed to try things out.

“In terms of experience, it’s great and it means that we can look at guys who can get up to 28 games under their belts rather than have someone going straight in to make their debut in the world series.

"We still have at least half-a-dozen of contracted world series regulars that will rejoin the rest of the squad for pre-season in August. Competition for places will be tough."

England face Romania, Georgia, Italy and France on Saturday with a final pool match against the Netherlands and the knock-out stages the following day.

England Sevens squad: John Brake, Chris Brightwell, Chris Cracknell, Ayoola Erinle, Andrew Higgins, Simon Hunt, Christian Lewis-Pratt, Tom Mitchell, Dan Norton, James Rodwell, Nick Royle, Rob Vickerman.

England Sevens win South Africa plate

Posted on Dec 14, 2009 in Rugby News

England beat South Africa 21-7 to win the plate at the Emirates Airline South Africa Sevens.

It was only the second time England had beaten the Boks in sevens on South African soil in what was a hyper-competitive plate competition.

England had to bounce back from their cup loss against winners New Zealand to beat Australia 24-5 in the plate semi final.

The last time an England side had beaten a South Africa side on their home patch was in 2003, but with Christian Wade (London Wasps), Worcester’s Jake Abbott, Ben Gollings (Gold Coast) and Isoa Damudamu (British Army) in inspired form Ben Ryan’s side ground out an impressive win, the biggest defeat Paul Treu’s side had faced in 80 matches.

England add 12 points to their World Series tally which puts them in third place behind Fiji and New Zealand respectively after reaching the Dubai cup semi final earlier this month.

England: Jake Abbott (Worcester Warriors), Kevin Barrett (capt, Saracens), Chris Brightwell (Birmingham & Solihull), Dan Caprice (Blackheath RFC), Chris Cracknell (Unattached), Isoa Damudamu (British Army), Ben Gollings (Gold Coast, Australia), Dan Norton (Bristol Rugby), James Rodwell (Moseley RFC), Nick Royle (Fylde RFC), Matt Turner (Bristol Rugby), Christian Wade (London Wasps)

England Sevens Emirates Airline South Africa Sevens results:

• December 11, England 42-0 Tunisia
• December 11, England 17-7 Argentina
• December 11, Scotland 19-29 England
• December 12, cup quarter final England 19-22 New Zealand
• December 12, plate semi final England 24-5 Australia
• December 12, plate final England 21-7 South Africa