SCOTS’ SEVENS MAY COME UNDER GB UMBRELLA

THE SRU are considering merging their sevens team with those in England and Wales as part of a new Great Britain approach to the World Series. The Scottish game’s governing body have struggled to fund sevens over the past decade and were forced into a U-turn, by the public and leading rugby figures, over plans to scrap the team in 2015, the same year they lost host status on the World Sevens Series. A merger has played into their desire to cut costs, and discussions have been ongoing since before the first Team GB was formed and went on to finish runners-up in the inaugural Olympic Sevens in Rio last year. Ironically, however, since that U-turn the profile of sevens in Scotland and union’s support for the game has rarely been higher. The fresh ambition has been rewarded on the pitch with the team coached by Calum MacRae going from struggling to reaching the Cup latter stages in most tournaments to beating the top-ranked nations, winning the London Sevens title twice and becoming the first Scotland side at any level to beat New Zealand. The SRU have pledged to continue at least for another year, appointing Borderer John Dalziel as the new head coach, to take over from MacRae, who is joining Edinburgh, and have already signed up the core of next season’s squad. By finishing seventh in this season’s World Series, Scotland secured qualification for the World Cup Sevens and the SRU is confident that Scotland, England and Wales will continue to compete individually in the World Cup Sevens and Commonwealth Games. However, there is pressure coming from around the world in two areas. With new Olympic qualification criteria meaning teams who finish in the top four of the World Series two years ahead of the Olympics are given automatic qualification into the Games, there is a resentment that Team GB currently have three nations able to claim one of those spots. Secondly, there is an increasing number of developing rugby nations keen to join the World Series, with China pushing for greater involvement. The current World Series schedule runs until 2019, so no change is likely before then but, should the merger happen from 2020, Scotland would suffer the loss of what has become a valuable development tool for exposing young professionals to highquality rugby when opportunities with Glasgow and Edinburgh remain limited. Last night, an SRU spokesman said: ‘Scottish rugby won’t be providing a comment other than to say we are preparing for next year’s World Series, the Commonwealth Games and World Cup Sevens competition.’