The subset of Simon Amor’s Team GB Sevens training squad the “Royals” last weekend claimed back to back titles in the Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix Series. They beat the other half of the squad, GB Lions, 26-14 in the Gdynia Sevens Cup final. Scotland’s Jamie Farndale, Scott Riddell and Joe Nayacavou all featured for the winning GB Royals side which you would hope put them high in contention for places in the final Olympic Sevens squad announced on Tuesday.
Despite the Lions looking perhaps the stronger when the teams were first announced, the Royals were also winners of last weekend’s Mitsubishi Motors Exeter Sevens and in the Exeter tournament had wins over Italy and fellow Olympians Spain, with Farndale a prominent scorer.
Here were the squads from that tournament as they stood ahead of the final cut today:
Teams
GB Royals
Tom Bowen
Alex Davis
Jamie Farndale
Alex Gray
Charlie Hayter
Warwick Lahmert
Ollie Lindsay-Hague
Ruaridh McConnochie
Joseva Nayacavou
Scott Riddell
James Rodwell
Luke Treharne
GB Lions
Mark Bennett
Phil Burgess
Cameron Cowell
Sam Cross
James Davies
Richard de Carpentier
Lee Jones
Gavin Lowe
Tom Mitchell (c)
Dan Norton
Mark Robertson
Morgan Williams
The final squad was announced this morning, and the mens team for Rio is as follows:
Team GB Men’s Squad for Rio Olympics
Mark Bennett, 23, Glasgow
Dan Bibby, 25, Putney
Phil Burgess, 28, Farnborough
Sam Cross, 23, Newport
Alex Davis, 23, Bristol
James Davies, 25, Carmarthen
Ollie Lindsay Hague, 25, London
Tom Mitchell, 27, Wandsworth
Dan Norton, 28, Bristol
James Rodwell, 31, Cotteridge
Mark Robertson, 31, Galashiels
Marcus Watson, 25, Weybridge
Travelling reserves:
Luke Treharne, 23, Llanelli
Ruaridh McConnochie, 24, Kingston upon Thames
No Scottish women made the woman’s team; captain Steph Johnston missed the cut.
Probably a slightly disappointing representation overall but it was always likely that English players would make up the bulk of the squad. Despite the recent good fortunes of the Scotland players in the shortened game, England have been competing at a higher level for that bit longer. You feel for the likes of Scott Riddell and Jamie Farndale who have had very strong seasons.
Percentage wise it is probably well above recent Lions representation, and we can probably claim Ruaridh McConnochie on linguistic grounds.
Congratulations to Mark Bennett and Mark Robertson who made the cut.