Lisa Thomson “knows rugby inside out” and will be a big asset to the Great Britain squad at the Olympics, says head coach Ciaran Beattie.
The Hawick 26-year-old is the only Scottish player in the squad that gets their medal bid in Paris underway on Sunday, but the head coach, assistant coach Scott Riddell and team manager Sean Lamont also bring a tartan-tinge to things.
Beattie said: “Lisa is brilliant around the squad and she is part of the leadership group.
“She is one of those players that just cuts through things and gets to the heart of the matter to keep the team moving forward at key times and I think that is a bit of a Borders trait.
“In fact, when her and myself chat in camp and our accents become fore ‘Borders’ as the chat goes on others around us say they can’t understand us!
“Seriously though, she is an excellent player and she knows rugby inside out.
“Coming from the Borders like me, she just loves the sevens game because we grew up with it all around us while she is a really tenacious person who is just getting better and better as a player.”
Scotsman Beattie, the 38-year-old former Scotland Sevens player who had to retire due to injury aged just 21, has been a busy man in the last 12 months as he has been heading up the GB Sevens men’s and women’s programmes from a coaching point of view.
The women finished eighth on the SVNS circuit for 2023/24 and Beattie said: “There is no doubt that the GB Sevens programme for women and men over the last couple of years has been challenging and different to what most of us have been used to before because you are bringing three nations together and there are logistical issues to overcome too in terms of where to train and things like that.
However, everyone who has been involved in the programme sine 2022, and especially over the last 12 months or so building up to this, has been working their socks off and we can see that coming through.
“Obviously, it is very frustrating that the men just could not get over the line recently to qualify and what was key for the women was winning the European Games in Krakow last summer.
“That result qualified the squad for the Olympics and also gave myself, the other staff and the players a chance to really take stock and then map out how the year on the road to Paris would look.
“The European Games were last June and there was then a Rugby Europe Championship Sevens leg in Hamburg in July.
“Preparation for Paris probably started in that Rugby Europe event in Germany, but cranked up when the SVNS 2023/24 season got underway in December in Dubai.
“A large pool of players were given the chance to impress between that and the final event in Madrid [in late May and early June] before a Rugby Europe Championship Sevens event in Croatia [Makarska] in early June.
The players were told soon after that event and selection was very, very tough.
“There are players who played a lot through the year who haven’t made it and the hardest part of my job was telling them. It’s never a nice thing to have to do and they were all obviously disappointed, but the mark of them as people and the bonds that this wider group of players has built up over the last couple of years has shone through since then.
“Those who have missed out have rallied round the girls selected to help them prepare and I could not be prouder of that togetherness.
“Things are coming together nicely ahead of the Olympics.”
- Scot Euan Mackintosh was assistant coach to New Zealand as they finished fifth in the men’s event played between July 24 and July 27 in Paris – it was won by France, Fiji taking the silver and South Africa the bronze. Great Britain were not in the tournament.
Great Britain women’s sevens Olympic squad
Amy Wilson Hardy
Ellie Boatman
Ellie Kildunne
Emma Uren (C)
Grace Crompton
Heather Cowell
Isla Norman-Bell
Jade Shekells
Jasmine Joyce
Lauren Torley
Lisa Thomson
Meg Jones
Reserves:
Abi Burton
Kayleigh Powell
Great Britain women’s sevens Olympic Pool B fixtures
Ireland, July 28 at 3.30pm local time (2.30pm UK)
Australia, July 28 at 7.30pm local time (6.30pm UK)
South Africa, July 29 at 2pm local time (1pm UK)
Rest of fixtures on July 29 and 30 depends on results
Ciaran Beattie is pictured, thanks to Team GB for the image
GH Media will be covering the Scots involved in sevens at the Olympics between July 27 and July 31