Scotland 7s struggle on home soil

Scotland 7s won one match and lost one match today, on day two of the Emirates Airline Glasgow 7s, their home tournament.However, the Scots had a bumper crowd behind them with some 13,380 fans, from across the globe, in Scotstoun Stadium at the busiest time today.They opened the day with a strong and confident win against Spain, which ended 31-5, but then just missed out to Kenya 19-24 in their Bowl semi-final.All to play for in World Series qualifierThe Scots now have to regroup and begin preparations for next weekend’s (Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 April) London 7s where they will compete in a HSBC Sevens World Series qualifying tournament with Hong Kong, Zimbabwe, Tonga, Georgia, Russia, Spain and Portugal. Scotland 7s will be in group A with Hong Kong, Zimbabwe and Georgia.Scotland 7s head coach, Stephen Gemmell, said: This has been a disappointing weekend overall as we have been inconsistent in our performances. Only in parts of our games did we show what Scotland 7s is all about and the potential we have.In sevens you have to be technically spot-on every single time, otherwise you will be punished and that is what happeneded to us today against Kenya.They are a very physical team and they are very good at what they do.We know that next weekend in the qualifying tournament we will be up against some very physical teams: Russia, Tonga, Georgia and Portugal. So we must now regroup and begin preparations for then, right now.Scotland 7s will be required to finish in the top three of next weekend’s tournament if they are to secure their core status in HSBC Sevens World Series. On day one the teams will play in two groups after being seeded one to eight and play each other once in their group. On day two they will be seeded again depending on where they finish in the group and all will enter a quarter-final.After the re-seeding team one will play team eight, team two will play team seven and so on. The winners will go into a semi-final with the two winners of the semi guaranteeing their place in next year’s HSBC Sevens World Series. The two losers of the semis will then play a third-placed play-off with the winner this match earning core team status.