Team GB Sevens plans unveiled

First topic message reminder :

Details remain thin. Joe Lydon is the team performance manager, but we already knew that. No coaches have been named. A selection panel with representatives from England, Wales and Scotland will choose.

This note on player eligibility is new:

In order to be eligible for selection, players must hold a British passport and should have previous sevens experience at international level having played in any one or more of the following tournaments in the 14-month period prior to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games:

•    World Rugby International World Sevens Series
  
•     Rugby Europe International Sevens Tournaments
  
•    Invitational preparation tournament
  

Eligible players will be required to express their interest in being selected through their respective home union’s performance programmes

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http://www.englandrugby.com/news/team-sevens-programme-unveiled/

What are Kenya and Japan like these days?

I know Kenya have won a 7s leg or two before, but are they consistently good?

Japan must struggle surely, although you'd think a game without the big guys in it would suit them.

yappysnap wrote:What are Kenya and Japan like these days?

I know Kenya have won a 7s leg or two before, but are they consistently good?

Japan must struggle surely, although you'd think a game without the big guys in it would suit them.

Japan are no great shakes - they lost a regular place on the sevens circuit. Having said that, they have claimed an occasional decent scalp. If qualification might come down to how well the other sides beat Japan, which is always a dangerous proposition, because play can get loose enough to give them a sniff of an upset.

Kenya looked well off the pace compared to their heyday a few seasons ago, but they have started to click again. They finished this season a place above England, and took the title in Singapore with a 30-7 win over Fiji. The draw did favour them, because they had France and Argentina on the way to the final, but that performance against Fiji was Kenya back to their best.