Scotland 7s finish third in Elche Tournament
11 Nov 2019Scotland 7s enjoyed six matches at the weekend’s Elche Tournament near Valencia in Spain as their preparation for this season’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.
Drawn in Pool A, the Scots beat local invitational side Viator 33-0 in the opener, before going on to beat Portugal 33-14. In Saturday’s final game, Ciaran Beattie’s side went down to Ireland 26-17, a result which meant they qualified for the quarter-finals of the cup competition.
On Sunday, Scotland went up against Wales for a place in the last four, winning 29-12 to set up a meeting with France. It proved a game too far as the French, who would go on to win the tournament, prevailed 20-12.
Scotland dusted themselves down to triumph in the 3rd/4th playoff against hosts Spain in their final match, running out 17-15 winners to round off a very productive weekend of competitive tournament sevens.
With less than four weeks to go until the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series gets underway in Dubai from 5-7 December, Head Coach Beattie was delighted with his squad’s efforts in Elche.
He said: “It was a really valuable experience for us, both from a playing point of view and spending time together as a group in tournament conditions.
“The team have really stuck in since I came into the set-up and we tried a few new things this weekend which they took on board immediately.
“Both Richard Mill and Callum Young integrated well into the group and I’d like to thank their clubs once more for being so accommodating with our requests to get them involved.
“All roads lead to Dubai now and our preparation for that will continue over the coming weeks.”
Saturday 9 November
Pool B results
Scotland 33-0 Viator
Scotland 33-14 Portugal
Scotland 17-26 Ireland
Sunday 10 November
Quarter-final: Scotland 29-12 Wales
Semi-final: France 20-12 Scotland
3rd/4th play-off: Scotland 17-15 Spain
