Earlier today England lost to Australia in the plate semi final stage of the IRB Australia Sevens in Adelaide....

Ben Ryan, England Sevens Coach, said, “We have certainly had plenty of highs and lows over the last two weeks – and especially this weekend.  Everyone felt so good after the win over Fiji last night but I thought we worked hard to stop any complacency coming in to the squad ahead of the Kenya game.  But whatever was said obviously didn’t translate onto the pitch and the boys underperformed.  We got a bit of our drive and fire back in the second half against the Australians but it was too late by then.  We need consistency if we are going to play at this high level and put some pride back in the England shirt.  Seeing how capable the players were last night and then watching them today was just so frustrating.  We just didn’t get out of second gear today.

“Now everyone needs to go home and deal with what has happened on a personal level.  We do have two tournaments left in the series and I hope to be able to use those to build on our squad for next season.  On the plus side we did have some individuals who performed extremely well at times including Damudamu and Danny Care.”

Ben Russell (Saracens) said, “I am hugely disappointed at our performance over the last two weeks. It has been the worst I have been involved with at this level.  I wish I could say what went wrong on the pitch but I can’t.  You can’t get away with just building yourself up for the big games in sevens as anything can happen and as we have seen any side can beat anyone else.  Perhaps our lack of experience came into it and if so then I hope everyone has learnt a lot from this.  To watch Fiji win the final tonight, when we had beaten them pretty convincingly last night, was a tough pill to swallow.  At least we do have two more tournaments left to play.” 

Simon Amor, captain (London Wasps) said, “There is not a lot I can say.  We had times of mental weakness today which should never ever happen when you play for your country.  All I can hope is that people will have learnt from this and from the feeling they are now sharing.  To be a great player you must perform consistently well and we didn’t do that this weekend.  It is bitterly disappointing and frustrating.”

 Ends.