Houston honoured to be back with Scotland 7s

Scotland 7s will open their 2013/14 HSBC Sevens World Series campaign against Australia (4.04am, UK time) tomorrow, the home team at the Gold Coast 7s.Hawick man, John Houston, returns to the side for the first time since suffering an injury at the 2013 Emirates Airline Glasgow 7s and it’s a challenge he’s relishing. He said: “I’m massively excited about tomorrow. It’s great to be working in a place like Australia, but the main thing is I’m getting the chance to represent my country again.”It’s a huge honour to play for Scotland 7s and something that drives me on.”The Scots will complete Group D with ties against Samoa (6.58am) and Argentina (9.08am) and for Houston it is important to ensure the team is firmly focussed on one game at a time and one day at a time. Houston continued: “Everyone is fixed on our first game against Australia, they are a quality side and will be very tough to play on home turf, but if we can come out firing against them we’ll set ourselves up well. “Ultimately, our goal is to get out of our group, but we have to operate one game at a time and think about day one first. “We’ve had a good week in training working on our set piece, basic skills and our attack and defensive shape. We came out early to help us get over the jet lag and acclimatise.”We also had a hit out with New Zealand earlier in the week, it was a tough, but good exercise. They are the best team in the world, so warming up against them has teed us up nicely for the weekend.”The Gold Coast 7s is the first leg of the HSBC Sevens World Series and comes nine months out from next year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.Scotland 7s team to play in the Gold Coast 7s on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 October: Scott Riddell (captain), Michael Fedo, Struan Dewar, Alex Glashan, Michael Maltman, Mark Robertson, Andrew Turnbull, John Houston, James Johnstone, Joseva Nayacavou, James Fleming and Gregor Young.Watch live onlineThe International Rugby Board has announced that, for the first time, the HSBC Sevens World Series will be streamed live online. Uninterrupted action of all nine rounds of the 2013/14 Series will be available to watch on the official website, www.irbsevens.com, starting with round one on Australia’s Gold Coast. Alternatively live coverage will be available on Sky Sports.