Decision time looms for Team GB coach Simon Amor
TEAM GB rugby Sevens head coach Simon Amor says last weekend’s Exeter 7s have left him with big selection headaches ahead of final selection for the Rio Olympics after both of his sides picked up silverware.
The GB rugby team has been split into two sides in the build-up to selection for this summer’s Games and the Exeter 7s was the second of three rounds in the Rugby Europe Grand Prix Sevens Series.
This weekend they are in action in Poland.
GB Royals won the Exeter leg last Sunday after coming from 12-0 down to beat reigning champions France 33-17 in the final.
And while GB Lions exited the main competition after they lost 7-5 to Russia in the quarter-finals, they did go on to claim the Plate courtesy of a 31-19 win over Germany.
Amor said: “This is a group of guys that pretty much met six weeks ago and they have been absolutely outstanding.
“They have fought and fought and fought. I am proud of them and I am proud of the staff that have come together very quickly.
“To win a trophy here is a credit to everyone that has been involved in the GB programme, I am really chuffed.
“We have some absolutely unbelievable players, there is so much talent to pick from and now we have to work out which one goes well with the other.
“They have given us some massive selection headaches and that is exactly the place we wanted to be in, so it is going to be a tough for myself and Gareth Williams talking this through.
“The support here has been amazing, thank you so much – hearing the GB chant in the crowd was brilliant.”
Amor, who is assisted by Wales Sevens boss Williams, will now have the unenviable task of whittling 27 names down to 12 for the final Olympics cut.
“The whole 27 guys are so close,” he said. “It just makes things very difficult now with this selection.”
One player definitely missing the trip to Rio is Luke Morgan, after he suffered an ACL injury for the second time in 14 months.
Morgan, right, said: “I played Saturday and everything was going perfect to be honest and then I played the first game on Sunday and that’s when I did it – I literally stepped off my right and then it buckled in a bit.
“I knew something wasn’t right but if I’m honest I didn’t think my chances of selection had gone altogether.
“I first thought it might have just been a twist – it didn’t feel the same when I did my left one last May.
“At the time I didn’t think it was that bad to be honest– obviously the adrenaline is kicking in but then I went for the scan on Sunday afternoon and unfortunately the scan doesn’t lie.
“I’m absolutely gutted but there’s nothing I can do about it – I’ve just got to suck it up and get on with it.”