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.

England can also add further players to the squad either on ‘core’ contracts shared with professional clubs or those in higher education like former England Under 20 internationals Sam Edgerley and Mark Odejobi.

Isoa Damudamu is unlikely feature in 2012-13, though. The soldier dislocated his left knee and damaged ligaments playing for the Army against the Navy last month and rehabilitation following surgery is expected to take at least a year.

England finished third in this season’s HSBC Sevens World Series behind New Zealand and Fiji with Mat Turner and Dan Norton first and second in the leading try-scorer table with 38 and 37 respectively.

“Being able to keep the bulk of this season’s squad together and add new faces is good news for us in terms of maintaining momentum, increasing competition and driving up standards,” said Ryan.

“We believe we can maximise their potential and turn them into world class sevens players. Some of the new full-time players have already gained experience in the HSBC Sevens World Series; others will make their debuts in Europe this summer and they’re all part of the next chapter for England Sevens.”

England Sevens contracted players: Dan Bibby, John Brake, Chris Brightwell, Chris Cracknell, Mike Ellery, Christian Lewis-Pratt, James Lightfoot-Brown, Tom Mitchell, Dan Norton, Tom Powell, Jack Preece, James Rodwell, Mathew Turner, Rob Vickerman, Marcus Watson, Jeff Williams.

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.

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.

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.

Ben Gollings in fine form for England Sevens

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

Kevin Barrett in action for England Sevens

Kevin Barrett has been named captain for the Emirates Airline Dubai and South Africa Sevens (Dec 4-5 & 11-12).

After helping his club Saracens beat World Champions South Africa, 24-23 last month, the England scrum half will take the lead from last season’s IRB Sevens Player of the Year Ollie Phillips (Stade Francais).

Last season Barrett also helped England to win the cup trophies at the Wellington and London legs of the IRB Sevens World Series.

This Friday England will take on Russia, USA and Kenya on day one and Barrett is looking forward to leading his team to the field.

“I’m really excited. Ben (Ryan) gave me the news the other day and I felt very privileged but we have lots of leaders in this team like Ben Gollings (Gold Coast), Chris Cracknell, Isoa Damudamu (British Army) and James Rodwell (Moseley RFC) so I’m hoping I can call on all of them.” said Barrett.

England have been training hard since arriving in Dubai last week and this season Ryan welcomes the likes of U20s speedster Christian Wade (London Wasps) to his side as well as the return of Dan Caprice (Blackheath) and Dan Norton (Bristol Rugby).

Continued Barrett, “We have benefitted from coming out a bit earlier this year and today’s training session was one of the best we’ve had since we arrived.

“I’ve been playing sevens for a while now but to go out as captain on Friday will be a proud moment and I’m really looking forward to it.”

“Kev has been an integral part of the squad for the last two seasons and deserves the captaincy, he’s a model professional and an outstanding player.” concluded Ryan.

England Sevens squad for Dubai and South Africa

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)

Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens fixtures:

December 4, England v USA, kick off 10.04am local time (GMT+4)

December 4, England v Russia, kick off 1.40pm local time (GMT+4)

December 4, England v Kenya, kick off 6.52pm local time (GMT+4)

Emirates Airline South Africa Sevens fixtures:

December 11, England v Tunisia, kick off 12.04am local time (GMT +2)

December 11, England v Argentina, kick off 3.10pm local time (GMT +2)

December 11, Scotland v England, kick off 7.32pm local time (GMT +2)