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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 Women 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