Joyce backs united sevens side

JASMINE Joyce has thrown her weight behind a unified Great Britain women’s sevens side.

News broke this week of a permanent merger of the Wales, England and Scotland men’s and women’s sevens squads into Team GB as a cost cutting measure following the financial meltdown of rugby during the coronavirus pandemic.

And fleet-footed Welsh Olympian Joyce has called for the merger to happen “sooner rather than later” to boost the prospects of a gold medal at next year’s Tokyo Games.

Last week presentations were submitted to the board of UK Sport in the hope that the funding agency would support a merger.

“It’s really important for that to happen, especially for us as women,” Joyce told the Daily Telegraph.

Joyce is one of just three Welsh women named in the initial 24-strong GB Women’s Sevens squad for Tokyo 2020 in February.

Joyce, pictured below, added: “Wales and Scotland aren’t on the world circuit, so for us as players, we’re not getting the exposure of playing against the highest teams.

“It’s really important that it happens sooner rather than later, just so we’re able to prepare as Team GB, who are going to compete in the

Olympics, rather than us training as Wales, Scotland and England and coming together on a few camps before we compete on the biggest stage in the world.

“If we did come together as all three nations to compete on the world series, we would have such a good chance of winning gold at the Olympics.

“The players who are in the squad at the moment are world class and all we need is some contact time together.”