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World Rugby statement: England, Scotland and Wales' GB 7s decision
By Liam Heagney
World Rugby has given its blessing for England, Scotland and Wales to unite as a British team on the Sevens Series circuit from 2023. The three countries traditionally usually only combined their forces for the Olympic tournaments, but they will now compete as one across the annual sevens calendar from next year.
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A statement read: “World Rugby acknowledges and supports the decision taken jointly by the RFU, Scottish Rugby and the WRU for Great Britain Sevens (GB) to compete in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, beginning with the 2023 Series.
“The decision, which aligns with their Olympic participation status and qualification pathway, means there will be no team relegated from the men’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2022, as England, Scotland and Wales are replaced by a GB team, while GB will directly replace England in the women’s series.
“Great Britain previously participated in the series in 2021 in preparation for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. England, Scotland and Wales will compete as individual nations in the Commonwealth Games, which take place at Coventry Stadium on July 29-31 and Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town on September 9-11 and the respective unions and World Rugby are in discussions with regard to further playing opportunities for the England, Scotland and Wales teams.
“It has also been confirmed by the World Rugby executive committee that Russia’s women’s sevens team have been withdrawn from the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2023 in line with the ongoing suspension of the Rugby Union of Russia from World Rugby membership and from participating in all international rugby competitions. As a result, Brazil will maintain their status as a core team in the women’s 2023 series.”
An RFU statement earlier on Wednesday added: “The Rugby Football Union (RFU), Scottish Rugby and Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) can confirm the unions will be joining together to form men’s and women’s Great Britain Sevens (GB) teams ahead of the 2023 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series. The move has been ratified and mandated by World Rugby, aligning the governing bodies’ future direction of sevens and connection to its Olympic status.
“The mandating of Olympic teams from the 2023/24 season means all three unions acknowledge the importance of transferring to GB from the forthcoming campaign (2022/23) to embrace this new era with GB as the representative team on the World Series moving forward.
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“Since rugby sevens’ introduction to the Olympic Games, both GB teams have performed strongly – the men secured silver in Rio and fourth in Tokyo while the women earned two fourth place finishes.”
RFU performance director Conor O’Shea said: “A huge amount of work has gone on behind the scenes to get to this stage and I would like to thank our colleagues at Scottish Rugby and the Welsh Rugby Union along with Nigel Cass (competitions director at World Rugby) for their collaboration.
“This is a seminal day for sevens, it is the right way forward, giving Team GB a real opportunity to go to the Olympic games with the right preparation, to compete on a level playing field with other sevens programmes and most importantly enables us all to give certainty to staff and players as to the future of the programme.
“We will be working hard now to finalise the structures to support GB so we are ready to start the 2023 World Rugby Sevens Series with a bang moving towards Paris 2024 and beyond.”
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