Joe Lydon said “To date the highlights of our five appearances have been the semi-finals. To beat Fiji in Wellington was a superb result for the squad and a massive morale booster ahead of the next two legs in China on March 15th/16th and Hong Kong, March 22/23/24th. However, we have also beaten Australia to reach the semi-finals in Durban, 27-7, Samoa and South Africa this season. If you bear in mind that the Springboks went on to beat New Zealand in the Wellington final it shows that we have a huge amount of potential within the squad.

“Ultimately our goal this season is to win a medal, preferably gold, at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. To do so we will have to improve but with tournaments in China, Hong Kong, the Emitrates Sevens, at Twickenham and Cardiff, we have the opportunities to strengthen the squad and develop the skills of the players.

“To date a number of players have proved that they have the ability to become good Sevens players. It’s always difficult to single people out but Michael Stephenson of Newcastle Falcons, Ben Gollings of NEC Harlequins and Richard Haughton, Saracens have all impressed and benefited from playing rugby at international level. We will be doing everything we can to support the Commonwealth Games and expect to provide squad players to run in a number of the legs for the baton relay which leads to the lighting of the Commonwealth games torch on July 25th.”

England were meeting on March 10th before flying out to China for the sixth leg of the IRB World Sevens Series.