SEVENS SCOTS ARE GOING FOR GOLD THIS TIME
LEE JONES insists the Scotland sevens squad can win Commonwealth gold – despite never having finished higher than sixth.
Now 34, the ex-Warriors and Scotland winger is taking part in his fourth Games. And he reckons the team have never been better prepared than they are currently under head coach Ciaran Beattie.
Jones said: “I’ve been in and out of sevens squads throughout my career and I feel this time with what Ciaran has brought in, and the way he’s approached the coaching side of things, that we’ve got a game that can challenge the best in the world if we’re on it.
“In the past I think we’ve potentially struggled to really challenge the better teams. But the way we’re playing the game – the way we’re defending and attacking – if we’re on it we can put the best teams under pressure.
“It will be a big challenge. Our best finish so far has been sixth in a couple of the tournaments – we need to do better than that.
“The boys are going out to try and get a medal. Gold is obviously better.”
Jones’ side are in Pool B in the 16-team tournament along with South Africa, Tonga and Malaysia. Scotland’s women are up against the South Africans, Fiji and Australia in their eight-team competition.
The action at the Coventry Stadium begins next Friday, with the finals taking place on July 31.
Scotland have already beaten the Springboks on the world tour this year and Jones added: “Confidence is a big thing. If you look back on this season as a whole, maybe the results haven’t been quite where we need them.
“But there are elements in there. We beat South Africa in Toulouse recently and that was a massive confidence-boost.
“When we play them in Birmingham it’s in the back of your mind that we’ve already beaten them.
“You just need to be on the money for that 14 minutes, and have a bit of confidence. The fact it’s in Birmingham means you can almost class it as a home game. There will be a lot of family down the road.
“t’s not quite Glasgow but it’s probably as close to home as you can get.”
A total of 171,000 people packed into Ibrox over the two days of the tourney in 2014 and while Scotland lost to South Africa in the quarter-finals, the event still holds a lot of happy memories for Jones.
He said: “Rugby-wise I’d say that Glasgow in 2014 probably sticks out across my whole career in terms of everything.
“It was a full house at Ibrox and that was a definite highlight.”