Scotland Sevens coach John Dalziel not bothered about merged GB team

Scotland Sevens head coach John Dalziel believes the plan for a merged Great Britain unit will be detrimental to the progress of his team.

With England, Wales and Scotland competing in the World Rugby Sevens series, Team GB effectively has three shots at qualifying for the Olympics considering the team can have players from all the three countries. This did not quite go well with the other teams forcing World Rugby to put forward the concept of a merged team in GB.

Citing the examples of Damien Hoyland and Magnus Bradbury, who made giant strides from sevens format to the XV a side squad, Dalziel feels the plan will backfire on the home nations and deprive them of talents.

"It doesn't worry me," he said. "That is obviously a matter for other people but the programme is in place here and Scottish Rugby hold sevens in high regard.

"There is a real focus building on sevens here for this year and next year. Scotland Sevens plays a big part in producing players for the XVs side and will continue to do so.

"We are clear, we are only focused on Scotland and if we can improve on Scotland then why would anybody want to change that?

"Our job as coaches and players is to make Scotland as competitive as we can. It is a developmental programme and we are not going to put any burdens on us playing well.

"We need to keep the right players coming through and that is our core focus going forward."

Scotland Sevens finally managed to break the shackles when they won the London Sevens in the 2016/17 season when they defeated England in the final and now will be part of the Olympics next year.

The likes of Stuart Hogg, Mark Bennett and Sean Lamont boosted Scotland Sevens squad three years ago and Dalziel has not ruled out of a similar arrangement this time also.

He said: "I can't comment on guys coming in and out at the moment, but I do know that we have a core group who have been performing very well so that is what we focus on.

"There are a lot of logistics to consider, the Six Nations is on around that time so guys will be tied up with that and younger guys will be asked to play for Glasgow and Edinburgh so it is more important than ever that the core guys are fit and playing well.

"It is within our powers to make sure that we deserve selection."

Scotland have never won a medal in a team sport previously but Dalziel is confident that the sevens team close to changing history.

"We won the last tournament we played in and were in the final of the one before that so we feel like something special could happen, but we have to put the hard work in first.

"With our win over New Zealand at the end of last season, it means there is nobody out there we haven't beaten before and we will go there and focus on the group first and foremost.

"We are confident and we have been playing well, it is exciting.

"I think I am right in saying that no team sport has ever won a medal for Scotland at a Games, so we have to go for it.

"Over the last few years this sevens group have been doing a lot of things that haven't been done before - beating New Zealand and winning events - so dare I say it the next thing could be a medal."