Recruitment opens for new Scotland 7s coach

Dalziel has been Scotland 7s coach since summer 2017 having previously been Assistant and Head Coach for Scotland U20, Assistant Coach with London Scottish and also led Premiership club side Melrose to three league titles and a Scottish Cup during his tenure.

Scottish Rugby Technical Director, Stephen Gemmell, said: “I’d like to thank John for his excellent leadership of the Scotland 7s team over the past two seasons and wish him all the best in his new role.

“His coaching progression through our club game, his time at London Scottish, age-grade and sevens teams has rightly been rewarded with a role in professional rugby at Glasgow Warriors and follows the footsteps of previous Scotland 7s coach Calum MacRae into Edinburgh Rugby. This clearly demonstrates the coaching pathway to professional rugby that we have developed within Scotland.”

John Dalziel said: “I have really enjoyed my two years working with the sevens team and competing on what is a very competitive circuit. It has greatly helped my personal and professional development and I feel it was successful in developing younger players and fulfilling the remit of enabling them to perform well in sevens and be integrated back into 15s.

“I have always been clear in my ambition to coach at a professional level and my experiences so far at Melrose, London Scottish, age-grades and sevens have all led to that goal.

“I think the hard work starts now, but I am impressed with the set-up Dave Rennie has in place, there is a team approach among the coaches and I’ve worked with many of the Glasgow players through the age-grade system or sevens so I’m very much looking forward to this new stage of my career.”

Former Scotland 7s captain and current Scottish Rugby Women’s High Performance Manager, Scott Forrest, will coach the Scotland 7s team in the two remaining World Rugby Sevens Series rounds in London and Paris respectively.

Forrest, who recently led the Scotland Women’s 7s team to the final of the World Series Qualifier in Hong Kong, has been in with the men’s squad in recent weeks and will bring a wealth of sevens experience to the role as well as gaining further experience from the opportunity.

Gemmell continued: “Scott will have a great opportunity to further his own development through the final two rounds of the World Sevens Series and we are now actively looking for an ambitious new Scotland 7s Head Coach, as part of our coaching pathway, as we head into the Olympic 7s season.”

Forrest has confirmed he will not be pursuing the Scotland Men’s 7s role beyond the conclusion of this season, reverting back to his current role within Scottish Rugby.

Scott Forrest said: “As a former player on the World Series this was an opportunity I didn’t want to turn down. I’m still developing as a coach and very much enjoying my current role working with Scotland Women so it isn’t the right time for me to do this full time just now.

“While the current sevens squad are a young group from the time I’ve spent with them they are good professionals and self reliant, who know what they want to achieve.

“We have England and New Zealand in our pool for the London round and as is the way with sevens there are no easy games, but they are all one-off matches so I’ve seen a real focus from the boys already.”