By Mally (27/05/03)
May 27 2003

Newcastle Falcons' Phil Dowson has retained his place in the England Sevens side for the Cardiff and London legs of the IRB World Sevens series. Fellow Falcon Jamie Noon, who was also in the side which retained the Hong Kong, is left out and will no doubt go on tour with one of the two 15-a-side squads after his performance against the Barbarians last Sunday. While on the whole England's performance was poor, Jamie Noon was easily England's best player "by a country mile" as Stuart Barnes put it.

Despite the impact of the two summer tours England Sevens' coach Joe Lydon has retained many of his key players, such as Harlequins Ugo Monye, and Gloucester's Simon Amor. Amor's club colleague Henry Paul, like Jamie Noon, has also been left out of the squad. Once Clive Woodward has named his touring sides (on Tuesday 27th May) 2 additional players will be added to the Sevens squad.

Lydon is confident that his squad will be "competitve" as he has "kept the core of the squad together" aswell as drafting in some new names such as Worcester's Duncan Roke. Included in the squad is NEC Harlequins' Ben Gollings, who is rumoured to be on is way up the A1 to join Newcastle Falcons.

New Zealand top the IRB Sevens rankings table on 96 points, England are currently second with 76 points and Fiji are in third just 2 points behind on 74 points.

Joe Lydon is keen for the squad to do well, winning the home tournament would raise the profile of Sevens Rugby in England.

"It would be important to win in London to establish Sevens in the mind of the public. That's one of our big goals but after two years on the World Series we know it's very difficult for side's to win their home tournaments."

First up for Phil Dowson and the rest of the England Sevens Squad is the Cardiff leg taking place at the end of this month (May 31st - June 1st), the Twickenham leg is on the following weekend June 6th & 7th.

England Sevens Squad:

Simon Amor (Gloucester), James Brooks (Northampton Saints), Phil Dowson (Newcastle Falcons), Ben Gollings (NEC Harlequins), Paul Hodgson (Bristol Shoguns), Magnus Lund (Sharks), Ugo Monye (NEC Harlequins), Duncan Roke (Worcester), Pat Sanderson (NEC Harlequins), Rob Thirlby (Rotherham).

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