The England Women’s squad to compete in the European 7s this weekend
in Bucharest, Romania, (July 16th & 17th) has been announced.
England Sevens Head Coach Barry Maddocks has made one change to the squad that won the Newquay 7s two weeks ago with Richmond’s Fran Matthews coming into the squad in place of Katherine Merchant.
The likes of Heather Fisher, Danielle Waterman, Alice Richardson and
Michaela Staniford are the experienced heads in the squad, with Jenny
Brightmore, Lydia Thompson and Kay Wilson also looking to continue their
progress on the Sevens ladder. Staniford and Sonia Green will co-captain
England.
Maddocks said: “This squad is an exciting mix of players to develop
and players with proven sevens experience. For some of our players this will
be their first international sevens experience and it will be great to see
how they perform in this sort of environment. We certainly have some young
players with a lot of talent. Then we have the likes of Danielle and Heather
who will no doubt bring some real experience to the side. It is also great
to be able to welcome Fran into the squad after she had a good outing for
the RFUW Development Team at Newquay. She has a lot of XV’s
experience, but is still a raw talent when it comes to sevens so it will be
good to see how she develops.”
England, who won the European Plate title a year ago, will play Romania,
Sweden, Italy, defending champions Spain and Germany in the pool stages.
“Certainly this tournament is going to be a big step up from Rugby
Rocks, the West Country 7s and the Newquay 7s,” added Maddocks.
“Spain are the reigning champions and will no doubt be a tough
proposition while I think Italy will also be very strong.”
England Sevens Squad
JennyBrightmore (Worcester)
Heather
Fisher(Worcester)
SoniaGreen(Saracens)
Sarah
Guest(Worcester)
Francesca
Matthews (Richmond)
Alice Richardson (Richmond)
Michaela
Staniford (Wasps)
Lydia Thompson (Worcester)
Danielle
Waterman (Worcester)
Kay
Wilson
(Richmond)
England playing schedule:
Saturday July 16th
England v Romania, KO 8am BST
England v Sweden, KO 1140am BST
England v Italy, KO 220pm BST
England v Spain, KO 420pm
Sunday July 17th
England v Germany, KO 840am
Knock out stages TBC
