England warming up for Commonwealth Games at Middlesex Sevens

An England team will compete in the Middlesex Sevens for the first time next month. The two day tournament kicks-off at Twickenham Stadium on August 14.

Head coach Ben Ryan’s squad are building towards the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October after finishing as silver medallists in Melbourne four years ago.

Ryan will be able to deploy stars from the IRB World Sevens Series like global record points scorer Ben Gollings and matchwinning all-rounder Isoa Damudamu.

England will compete as the Help For Heroes team wearing the black and white shirts of the charity that supports servicemen and women wounded in Britain’s current conflicts.

Wales and Scotland also take part in the tournament – representing pancreatic cancer charity Amser Justin Time and the Thistle Rugby Trust – alongside Aviva Premiership clubs, including defending champions London Irish, the British

Army and ULR Samurai invitation sides.

“The Middlesex Sevens provides a great opportunity for us to get high quality game time in the run up to the Commonwealth Games and we’re delighted to be taking part,” said Ryan.

“It’s a historic and high quality event that’s full of top-end players and it’ll be a good gauge of where we are and what finishing touches we need to put to our preparations.

“We’ll be keeping a few things up our sleeves for Delhi but it’ll be a great testing ground for us as well as for Wales and Scotland.

“To do it under the Help For Heroes banner adds a great deal to the experience and we’re delighted to be able to support them.”

Ryan is due to name his training squad for the tournament later this month.

England will face Australia at the Commonwealth Games in the pool stages of the Rugby Sevens tournament which takes place on October 11 and 12.

The 2006 silver medallists have been placed in Pool D with the Wallabies, Namibia and Sri Lanka.

England were beaten 29-21 in the Melbourne final four years ago when New Zealand claimed their third gold medal following their wins at Manchester (2002) and Kuala Lumpur (1998).