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'Things are coming together nicely': Beattie on Olympic preparation

263 days ago

LEEDS, ENGLAND - JUNE 19: Team GB Paris 2024 Olympic Games Women's Rugby 7s Squad pose for a photograph during the Team GB Paris 2024 Olympic Games Women's Rugby 7s squad announcement at Weetwood Hall Estate on June 19, 2024 in Leeds, England. (Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)

Great Britain women’s sevens Olympic journey begins today when the squad and the backroom staff travel to the preparation camp on the outskirts of Paris via Eurostar with head coach Ciaran Beattie stating that the players are “buzzing” to get going.

The squad will put the finishing touches to their plans over the coming days at the camp in Saint Germain en Laye some 12 miles outside of the French capital and then, next week, they will travel to the athletes’ village.

There will be no Team GB representation in the men’s tournament on July 24, 25 and 27, but the women will be looking to make their mark when they are in action in the Stade de France on July 28, 29 and 30.

And, as if the Olympics needed any more hype, the players are focused on getting on the podium after fourth-place finishes at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 [played in 2021] and they are playing in the first match of the whole tournament versus Ireland.

“As soon as the draw came out for the Olympics and I saw we were playing Ireland first up I thought ‘That is going to be a cracker of a match’ and the players are buzzing for it, in fact, they are buzzing for this whole experience,” head coach Beattie said.

“It will be a huge game and it will determine a lot.

“Ireland are a good side, there is no doubt about that, but we played them a number of times on the [HSBC] SVNS circuit this year and, whether we won or lost, we often came off thinking ‘we could have done better there and we have more to give’.

“We then played them in Hamburg in the Rugby Europe event recently and won that one and played well [coming out on top 21-14], but again the players came off the pitch feeling that they had more to give.

“None of the other results against them this season matter a jot now, this is a one-off game and we have to be ready for it because it’ll set the tone for the whole tournament.”

As well as Great Britain and Ireland, 2016 champions Australia and South Africa are in Pool B of the 12-team event with 2020 champions New Zealand, Fiji, Canada and the People’s Republic of China in Pool A and France, USA, Japan and Brazil in Pool C.

Beattie, the 38-year-old former Scotland Sevens player who had to retire due to injury aged just 21, has been a busy man in the last 12 months as he has been heading up the GB Sevens men’s and women’s programmes from a coaching point of view.

The women finished eighth on the SVNS circuit for 2023/24 and Beattie said: “There is no doubt that the GB Sevens programme for women and men over the last couple of years has been challenging and different to what most of us have been used to before because you are bringing three nations together and there are logistical issues to overcome too in terms of where to train and things like that.

“However, everyone who has been involved in the programme since 2022, and especially over the last 12 months or so building up to this, has been working their socks off and we can see that coming through.

“Obviously, it is very frustrating that the men just could not get over the line recently to qualify and what was key for the women was winning the European Games in Krakow last summer.

“That result qualified the squad for the Olympics and also gave myself, the other staff and the players a chance to really take stock and then map out how the year on the road to Paris would look.

“The European Games were last June and there was then a Rugby Europe Championship Sevens leg in Hamburg in July.

“Preparation for Paris probably started in that Rugby Europe event in Germany, but cranked up when the SVNS 2023/24 season got underway in December in Dubai.

“A large pool of players were given the chance to impress between that and the final event in Madrid [in late May and early June] before a Rugby Europe Championship Sevens event in Croatia [Makarska] in early June.

The players were told soon after that event and selection was very, very tough.

“There are players who played a lot through the year who haven’t made it and the hardest part of my job was telling them. It’s never a nice thing to have to do and they were all obviously disappointed, but the mark of them as people and the bonds that this wider group of players has built up over the last couple of years has shone through since then.

“Those who have missed out have rallied round the girls selected to help them prepare and I could not be prouder of that togetherness.

“Things are coming together nicely ahead of the Olympics.”

Among the players who made late runs for places in the 12-strong squad and two replacements group that is heading for France were Ellie Kildunne and Meg Jones.

They both helped England win the Guinness Women’s Six Nations Grand Slam before they joined the sevens setup in late June and Beattie explained: “They had some catching up to do, but they are quality rugby players and that shone through in the weeks after the Six Nations and, ultimately, led to them being selected.

“I feel that the squad has a nice balance to it and I am very happy with the players who will be representing Great Britain out in France on the biggest stage of all, I want them to embrace the occasion.”

After much deliberating and then telling the players post-Makarska on June 10 who had made the cut, Beattie has ended up with 10 English players, one Welsh player and one Scottish player in the frontline squad with an English player and a Welsh player in reserve.

Emma Uren has been named captain while, as well as Beattie, the squad will be supported by assistant coach Scott Riddell, strength and conditioning coach James Nolan, team manager Sean Lamont and, from a logistics point of view, Joe Lydon.

Coming from Selkirk in the Scottish Borders, Beattie grew up with the abbreviated form of the game and loves it now as much as ever.

“When I was younger playing sevens at an Olympics was never a dream because it wasn’t an option,” he stated.

“I did get to live out my dream of playing sevens all over the world and then coaching Scotland Sevens men and now GB Sevens all around the place, but to be going to an Olympics is something really special.

“As I say I want the squad to embrace the opportunity that is in front of them and when we take to the field for the Ireland game next Sunday we will be as ready as we can be.”