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Ben Ryan has decided upon his final squad of twelve in preparation for England’s defence of their London Sevens title this Saturday (May 22 & 23).

As expected from Ryan’s original squad selection, stellar names such as Tom Varndell, Micky Young and Ollie Phillips all return to the side for Twickenham.

Oliver Lindsay-Hague, Simon Hunt, and John Brake all miss out.

Last year Ryan's team lifted the trophy and delighted the record crowd, beating the New Zealand 31-26. This year over 66,000 tickets have already been sold for one of the most improved legs on the IRB Sevens World Series.

With just two legs in this year's Series remaining, the home side need to pick up full points if they are to overtake Australia and close the 20-point gap between them and third place Fiji.

English once again face-off against the Aussies in the pool stages on Saturday adding to a series of intriguing battles between the pair this season.

Having lost out to 17-12 in Adelaide in March, a week later England turned the tables with a 26-19 victory in the Hong Kong quarter- final and will be banking on home advantage when the two teams meet on Saturday’s last game. The hosts also face Russia and Scotland on the opening day’s play.

Ryan said, "We have a strong side, we have some very exciting players and we're going to do everything we can to defend London.

"In London it's a bit more personal, we only get one home game a year and for the next however many years I want to make sure this is a priority tournament and we win it every time."

Veteran Rabeni returns

Fiji have bolstered an inexperienced squad with inclusion of English based Seru Rabeni in place of dropped Etonia Naba . The Leeds Carnegie powerhouse has been a pivotal figure in his club’s successful fight against relegation from the Guinness Premiership this year. 

Rabeni first represented Fiji Sevens back in 1998 going on to play in Hong Kong twice. Capped 27 times by the full Fiji 15-a-side team he is also often seen on the UK invitational sevens scene with the Kaiviti Krusaders.

England Sevens squad for London and Edinburgh

Greg Barden (Royal Navy), Kevin Barrett (Saracens), Chris Brightwell (Bedford), Ben Gollings (capt, Gold Coast, Australia) , Ollie Phillips (Stade Francais) , Tom Powell (Unattached) , James Rodwell (Moseley), Mat Turner (Bristol Rugby), Tom Varndell (London Wasps)**, Rob Vickerman (Newcastle Falcons) , Christian Wade (London Wasps)*Micky Young (Newcastle Falcons)**

*Christian Wade will be replaced by Nick Royle (Fylde) for Edinburgh

**Denotes England Saxons player