By Kath 14/3/06
March 14 2006

England Rugby Sevens, Commonwealth Games 2006 on TV. England 7s stand a good chance of winning medals. The 15-man travelling squad has been reduced to 12 who play in Melbourne on 16 & 17th March. The squad will be captained by Simon Amor, who played in the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games.

Rugby Sevens - Commonwealth Games on TV

England Rugby Sevens stand a very good chance of winning a medals at the Commonwealth Games 2006 being held in Melbourne.  The 15-man traveling squad has been reduced to 12 who play in Melbourne on Thursday 16th and Friday 17th.  The squad will be captained by Simon Amor, who played in the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games.

The final rugby sevens squad for the Commonwealth Games is:
Simon AMOR (Gloucester) Captain
Danny CARE (Leeds Tykes)
Ben GOLLINGS (Sunnybank, Australia)
Richard HAUGHTON (Saracens)
Magnus LUND ( Sale Sharks)
Nils MORDT (London Irish)
Henry PAUL (Gloucester)
Ben RUSSELL (Saracens)
David SEYMOUR (Saracens)
Mathew TAIT (Newcastle Falcons)
Tom VARNDELL (Leicester Tigers)
Andy VILK (Northampton Saints)

   

photos copyright of ClaireJ

Ben Gollings and Mathew Tait - Sevens Stars 

The  coverage of the games will be by the BBC and we have listed below the important times for you all, you may want to print it off and keep it safe somewhere.

Wednesday 15th March 2006

9:00 am Commonwealth Games: Opening Ceremony

Then Live action from Melbourne of the Rugby Sevens into the early hours of Thursday 16th March

 11:50 pm - 1:40 am 150mins

Scotland v Niue;

New Zealand v Wales;

England v Cook Islands;

Scotland v Canada;

Kenya v Wales.

Commentators are Paul Dickenson, Keith Quinn, Brendan Telfer and Paul Allison.

Thursday 16th - Friday 17th March 2006

Commonwealth Games 2006 Friday 17 March,

Live action from Melbourne.

2:30 am - 7:00 am 270mins

 Quarter-finals. Only eight teams remain in the hunt for gold, with the top two sides from the four pools playing off.

England Sevens Coach Mike Friday admitted that reducing the squad was extremely hard,  “Every one of the 15 players we brought here deserved a place and it was a very tough decision to make. Although only 12 of them will get to play we are very much a 15-man squad and the three players not playing will be just as important to the success of this squad as those on the pitch.  That’s what being a team is all about.”

England begin their Commonwealth campaign on Thursday at the Telstra Dome with pool stage matches against Cook Islands, Sri Lanka and home nation Australia.  Captain Simon Amor said, “Everyone seems to be focusing on our match against Australia but in sevens you have to beat six different teams if you want to win so we are not concentrating just on the Australians.”

The squad have been preparing for the Games in a camp on Australia’s Gold Coast.  Simon is pleased with how the camp has gone, “The camp has gone very well. It has been great to have this opportunity to spend time together before a tournament. Normally we just have a few days but here we have been fortunate enough to get a good ten days in camp before traveling down to Melbourne for the Games.  It has enabled us to do certain types of training that we don’t normally have the chance to do, and has given us great preparation time.”