Scottish seven under pressure to do it for Delhi

THE world of sevens rugby was savoured in all of its glory in Melrose last month, but when the leading 16 nations do battle for the Ned Haig Cup this weekend there will be little similarity to what supporters enjoyed in the small Borders town.
The ball will be the same shape and the rules the same, but from about that point on, the Emirates Airlines Edinburgh Sevens moves into a different world. Melrose Sevens remains a world leader for club tournaments and maintains all that is good about the feeling of "a day out at sevens", but this is a very different prospect.

Scotland are under serious pressure to perform today with the nation's place in the Commonwealth Games later this year partly dependent upon their ability to prove they can hold realistic ambitions of reaching the latter stages of the cup in Delhi.

Coach Stevie Gemmell has struggled for continuity and consistency this season with players coming into his squad and departing, dependent on injuries and call-ups from the professional teams. He has fielded veteran sevens caps like Mike Adamson and club stars such as John Dalziel of Melrose and Selkirk's Lee Jones, but the unavailability of Colin Gregor, one of Scotland's best sevens performers for many years, has been a severe handicap.

Jones is part of the squad this afternoon and he will use this tournament to mark the end of his amateur career and what he hopes will be the start of a lengthy one with Edinburgh as he makes the step-up to the pro ranks this summer.

A strong winger just as comfortable playing scrum-half in XVs, Jones blends the sevens nous learned over many years and countless tournaments with Selkirk Youth Club and Selkirk in the Borders with the professional attributes of real strength, power, aggression and pace.

And that is where this two-day tournament differs most significantly from even the best club event. Where a player with pace such as South African Alshaun Bock stood out at the Greenyards this year, he was not considered quick enough any more to be part of the South African team that will this weekend seek to rekindle the celebrations they enjoyed in winning the IRB world crown at Murrayfield last year, even if they cannot catch leaders Samoa or chasers New Zealand this time around.

Put simply, each team aspiring to reach even the quarter-finals of the main cup competition at Murrayfield must have at least seven fast players in its squad of 12. The other five have to be just quick. They must also have the brawn one expects with XV-a-side forwards to survive the mighty impact from tackles, the kind the South Sea Islanders are famed for, and they must also have the movement, balance and handling skills that set apart those attackers who light up XVs rugby by beating a man one-on-one.

It is hard to judge who the top performers will be now. Russia are refining their game and beginning to emerge as a serious pool threat, while Kenya continue to claim top scalps with a regularity that explains their current eighth place in the world standings.

Scotland have managed to pull together their strongest squad of the series and are intent on finishing on a high, and Gemmell hopes the Murrayfield crowd can again help them in the same way that they roared them into the semi-finals last year.

"The last three years the crowd has been magnificent," he said. "They've cheered us from game one until the very last game that we've played in.

"We need to make sure that the crowd are behind us because of how we are performing. When games are tight, the public help us – the atmosphere last year was unbelievable. If we can replicate that in terms of the public support this year, and we can replicate those types of performances, then this will be a special weekend for everyone involved in Scotland Sevens."

Their pool is tough, but more open than last week's, with Fiji and the USA the top seeds, and Wales, like Scotland, capable of beating both of them on their day. The Fijians have lost their mantle as the world's leading sevens nation, but are still third in the rankings.

The size of Scotland's challenge cannot be under-estimated in an ever-improving sevens arena, but on home soil hopes are high that, while a colourful, social carnival goes on across the back pitches and around the stadium from dawn to dusk, the difference on the field this weekend will lie in the results.