Scottish Rugby confirm future sevens programme

Scottish Rugby will continue to run Scotland 7s programmes as the move to a Team GB model is confirmed for the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series today.

The Team GB structure will begin this coming season, leading towards the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Read: GB Sevens to join 2023 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series

Scottish Rugby is committed to continuing representative sevens programmes to develop players and coaches, not only for GB 7s but for the wider 15s game and to represent Scotland at Commonwealth Games and Rugby World Cup Sevens competitions respectively.

The country’s leading men’s and women’s sevens players will have the opportunity to play on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series as part of the newly-agreed and mandated Team GB Sevens programme, whilst other Scottish players will continue to have the opportunity to represent Scotland 7s in other competitions.

Discussions with England (RFU) and Wales (WRU) will continue over the summer to develop the coaching and playing programme for Team GB, ahead of it joining the HSBC World Sevens Series, which begins in November.

Scottish Rugby’s Director of High Performance, Jim Mallinder, said: “Once rugby sevens became an Olympic sport there was increasingly a requirement from World Rugby that Team GB, as the recognised Olympic entity, should also become part of the sevens landscape to align Olympic qualification through the HSBC World Sevens Series.

“We want our players competing at the highest possible level moving forward and I fully expect Scotland to have good representation in the Team GB squads, both for men and women.

“Sevens will continue to play a role in our development pathway and we want to maintain the pipeline of quality players capable of representing both Scotland and Team GB in the future.”

“We will continue discussions with World Rugby as to what those future playing opportunities will look like.”