HEAD of England Sevens Simon Amor has named his 20-man squad for the new season which will include the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series and the Rugby Europe Sevens Grand Prix Series.
This season carries added significance in that it is the qualifying season for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and, as with Rio 2016, England are the nominated nation to qualify Team GB for Tokyo 2020.
The squad is split into senior, academy and university players. The experienced senior set-up features five Olympic silver medallists from Rio 2016 in Dan Bibby, Phil Burgess, Tom Mitchell, Ollie Lindsay- Hague and all-time leading try scorer Dan Norton.
These five players all contributed to England's bronze medal success at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games alongside Richard de Carpentier, Alex Davis, Mike Ellery, Harry Glover and Ethan Waddleton who are all named in the squad.
England ended their 2017/18 campaign with a second place finish at the Rugby World Cup Sevens where all of the aforementioned players – with the exception of Bibby and Waddleton who were unavailable due to injury – represented their country alongside Will Muir to take home a silver medal and will remain with England for 2018/19.
Will Edwards will this season form part of the core senior group of players as he progresses from the England Sevens academy and Tom Bowen will remain an integral member of the senior setup after overcoming injuries last season.
Amor said: “With a number of experienced players remaining and some great young talent joining we're excited about the season ahead.”
James Rodwell and Charlie Hayter will take on the role of player coaches.
ENGLAND MEN'S SEVENS SQUAD:
Jamie Barden, Dan Bibby, Tom Bowen, Phil Burgess, Alex Davis, Richard De Carpentier, Will Edwards, Mike Ellery, Harry Glover*, Ben Harris, Charlie Hayter**, Ollie Lindsay-Hague, Charlton Kerr, Tom Mitchell, Will Muir, Dan Norton, Ryan Olowofela, James Rodwell**, Femi Sofolarin, Ethan Waddleton
* University player
**Player coach
