Scotland Sevens won the Bowl Final during the IRB Sevens tournament at Twickenham

It’s now less than 48 hours until Scotland 7s open their 2011/12 HSBC Sevens World Series campaign on the Australian Gold Coast.

The 12-man squad first face England, at 1.19pm local time (3.19am UK time) before taking on Wales (6.47am) and Tonga (9.14am), in Pool D, during day one (Friday 25 November).

Head coach Graham Shiel wants to see the new season off to a flying start with qualification to the Cup competition, held on day two.

He said: “Preparations have been very positive for us this season with the new strategy towards Sevens in Scottish Rugby. We’ve had regular access to our squad which has allowed us to spend more time together in advance of travelling. We are well aware of the challenges the HSBC Sevens World Series presents. As part of our preparation we have decided to travel early to Australia to try and overcome the challenges presented to us by the long journey, time change and significant change in temperature.

“We had the benefit of spending three days recovering from the journey and this has given us a smoother week of preparation in the lead up to competition. As ever we are looking to perform well on day one with a view to qualifying for the Cup competition on day two. We have a tough group containing England, Wales and Tonga, so we’ll have to perform to our potential to achieve this.”

Log onto www.scottishrugby.org on Friday morning for the latest updates on how the team are getting on!

Scotland 7s squad for the opening three tournaments of the HSBC Sevens World Series
Adam Ashe
Sam Hidalgo-Clyne
Struan Dewar
James Eddie
Michael Fedo
James Fleming
Colin Gregor
Peter Horne
Kerr Gossman
Ross Miller
Scott Riddell
Andrew Turnbull