Friday 09 April 2010

THE ENGLAND SEVENS squad will be going all out to defend their winning title at Twickenham in next month's Emirates Airline London Sevens (May 22 & 23).

Last year Ben Ryan's team took the trophy and delighted the record crowd, beating New Zealand 31-26 in extra time. This year promises to attract an even bigger attendance.

England are currently four points behind fourth place Australia in the IRB Sevens World Series.

Having lost out to the Wallabies 17-12 in Adelaide last month, 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 in the last pool match of day one.

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 themselves and third place Fiji.

The action kicks off on Saturday at 10.30am with leaders Samoa taking on the improving USA. Other highlights include Fiji v South Africa (6.44pm) and second place New Zealand v Kenya at 7.06pm, before England take on Australia at 7.28pm.

With valuable points up for grabs before the winner of the Series is crowned in Murrayfield a week later, all 16 teams will be out to add to their tally.

IRB Sevens Manager Beth Coalter said, "The penultimate tournament in this year's Series in London will be a real cracker. The extremely competitive and exciting games that we have seen over the last six tournaments have resulted in there being no clear winner with, Samoa and New Zealand separated by just six points at the top of the standings.

"Then there are the rest who are all looking to get as high up the points table as they can before the final tournament in Scotland, including Australia and USA who have shown what consistency in their teams can achieve. Twickenham is set to see some very entertaining rugby over the entire weekend."

More than 30,000 tickets have already been sold for the event with fans being encouraged to dress as their favourite superheroes to break the Guinness World Record for the 'Largest Gathering of Superheroes' on the finals day.

Ryan said, "We can't wait to return to Twickenham and get our title defence underway. We are up against tough opposition in the pool stages, with Russia, Scotland and Australia, but coming to London for our home event is always special and I'm hoping this will give the players an extra boost as they play in front of their family and friends.

"Last year the crowd were fantastic, they really got the behind the players right the way to the final. This year promises to be even more exciting with the superhero fancy dress theme and we hope to see as many fans as possible out in fancy dress on Sunday taking part in the record attempt."

Watch England Sevens in action on May 22 & 23 at the Emirates Airline London Sevens, their only home tournament of the IRB Sevens World Series. Tickets are available from £10 from www.rfu.com/tickets

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