Scotland Women 7s’ Grand Prix Circuit Begins in Brive

Scotland Women 7s squad arrived in Brive this evening, looking forward to testing themselves against the other top 12 women’s sevens’ teams in Europe, at the FIRA-AER Grand Prix event this weekend.As ten of the twelve captains (Wales and Ukraine were still en route) gathered for a photocall at Brive’s town hall – Scotland captain Steph Johnson pictured above – head coach Scott Forrest looked ahead to Saturday’s opening game.He said: We played Ukraine last year in Moscow (at the World Cup 7s qualifer) – that was our first match there – we were a bit shell-shocked going into that game. We watched it back during last weekend’s training camp and the amount of mistakes we made… The players have undoubtedly learned some lessons since then.Once we got the Ukraine game out of the way last year we improved but the girls themselves identified that we can’t take a game to get into the tournament.I talked last weekend about the difference between positive thinking and realistic thinking – I’d say I’m pretty positive about these kind of things but you can’t think positively about everything beciase it’s not realistic. So, realistically, we’re going into this tournament ranked 11 out of 12 – we want to be ranked in the top 10.If we come out of it ranked 10 then that’s an improvement for us. And the players themselves identified that. Having not played together they set some targets for the first game and said they want to improve on them throughout this first tournament.Brive match schedule (all times BST) – Day 1 – Saturday 1 June09:22 Ukraine v Scotland12:02 Italy v Scotland14:42 Ireland v Scotland18:06 France v Scotland Scotland Women 7s squad to compete in FIRA Grand Prix Series, Stadium Municipal, Brive, 1/2 June 2013 (click on links to view player’s biog) 1. Lindsay Wheeler (Richmond)2. Tess Forsberg (Richmond)3. Lyndsay O’Donnell (Worcester)4. Kelly Shields (Murrayfield Wanderers)5. Megan Gaffney (Hillhead/Jordanhill)6. Katy Green (Darlington Mowden Sharks)7. Ruth Slaven (Murrayfield Wanderers)8. Sarah Law (Murrayfield Wanderers)9. Annabel Sergeant (Richmond)10. Steph Johnston (RHC Cougars)11. Jennifer Maxwell (Leeds Met University)12. Sarah Smith (Hillhead Jordanhill) Scotland compete in Pool B of the tournament against Ukraine, Italy, Ireland and France on day one and Spain on day two, with further opposition to be confirmed following the results of these matches. England, Russia, Netherlands, Portugal, Germany and Wales compete in Pool A. Scotland must finish tenth or higher at the end of both tournaments (Marbella – 15/16 June) in order to retain their Grand Prix status and their final placing will give their ranking for 2014.