The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Sevens duo dreaming of golden Games for Scots
Jacob Henry and Paddy Kelly reckon Scotland should be targeting a medal in the rugby sevens at this summer’s Commonwealth Games.
Henry was named in the Team Scotland squad yesterday, alongside another former Highland RFC youngster in Kelly.
The back was born in London but moved to Dingwall at the age of three. He attended Dingwall Academy and was part of the youth teams at local club Ross Sutherland, before joining Highland 15 miles down the road in Inverness.
Henry was brought on to the Scottish Rugby Academy programme in 2018 and relocated to the Borders to play for Melrose.
His rugby journey has since taken him on to South Africa and Edinburgh, while he played in the Super6 in 2021 for Southern Knights after more than a year out with an Achilles injury.
His switch to the different code of the game came when Ciaran Beattie, the Scotland Sevens head coach, was putting together his squad for a tournament in Spain. Beattie had worked with Edinburgh’s youngsters in 2020 and came across Henry there.
“I’m absolutely delighted to be selected,” said Henry. “We’re going there to win and we want to get a medal.
“We’ve been hammering away at things in training that we want to do. It’s a really quick tournament – you gear up for it and go in there flying.
“I didn’t play much sevens at Highland or when I was younger. I was maybe 16 or 17 the last time I properly did it (prior to this year).
“I was trying to learn that coming from 15s but the
guys have been really good with me. Jamie Farndale (Scotland captain) has been good, teaching me how to play an edge position.”
Kelly’s roots are also in the north of Scotland, having been born in Inverness and attending Millburn Academy. He played for Highland’s first-team before
moving to Merchiston Castle in 2012 and his rugby journey has seen him turn out for Provence in France, Glasgow Warriors and London Scottish.
The 26-year-old made his sevens debut in 2020 and was part of the Team GB training squad ahead of the Tokyo Olympics last year.
“We have spoken about it as a squad, about it being our ambition to get a medal,” said Kelly. “We have really strong belief in the squad.
“Some of our results in the World Series have been tough and we’ve just not been at 100%. I feel like we’ve still got a lot to give, which is exciting for us.
“We’ve not showed to the rest of the world how good we are. We’re quite confident and are very open that it’s our ambition (a medal). Anything less than that we would be disappointed with.
“It’s a bigger summer ahead and one we’ve been building towards. Normally Twickenham is our last tournament and it’s feet up for the summer for the sevens boys.
“We’ve just done a twoweek training block and another two weeks now to go. It’s exciting.”