May 29, 2008

England call for Young, Cook and Rodwell

Michael Young (Newcastle Falcons), Ollie Cook (Doncaster Knights) and James Rodwell (Moseley FC) have been called up to the England Sevens squad for this weekend’s Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens at Murrayfield.

The three young guns will replace Ben Foden (Sale Sharks), Lee Dickson (Newcastle Falcons) and Rob Webber (London Wasps) who report for England Saxons duty ahead of the Barclays Churchill Cup.

In the last round of the IRB Sevens Series, England will face pool matches against Portugal, Russia and finally New Zealand, where they will be hoping for a repeat of last weekend’s London leg, which saw them beat the favourites by 17-12 for the first time in five years.

Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens 12 man England squad:

Jack Adams (Gloucester Rugby)
Kevin Barrett (Exeter Chiefs)
Tom Biggs (Leeds Carnegie)
Chris Cracknell (Cornish Pirates)
Ollie Cook (Doncaster Knights)*
Ben Gollings (Sunnybank, Australia)
Uche Oduoza (Worcester Warriors)
Ollie Phillips (Newcastle Falcons)
James Rodwell (Moseley FC)*
Andy Vilk (Sale Sharks, captain)
Michael Young (Newcastle Falcons)*
Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers)

* Denotes uncapped for England Sevens

England’s Pool matches, May 31:

England v Portugal, ko 9.34am
England v Russia, ko 12.40pm
New Zealand v England, ko 4.20pm

Ends…