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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:11:25:18:11:05 by Kath..

Barden switches from front line to full-time with England Sevens


Greg Barden in training with England

England’s Greg Barden has swapped the front line for a full-time sevens career.

The 30 year old left the Royal Marines this year, ending 14 years with the military that included service in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Barden, from Poole in Dorset, is one of 12 full-time sevens players on England’s books who kick off the HSBC Sevens World Series on Friday on the Gold Coast in Australia, the first of nine global events this season.

At the same time he’s also preparing to open another new chapter in his life by developing an online business and consumer networking platform due to launch in February.

First of all, though, England launch their sevens campaign in Queensland before tournaments in Dubai (December 2-3) and Port Elizabeth (December 9-10) with nearly three months of pre-season work behind them.

Time has been called on Ben Gollings after 12 years and Dan Caprice has stepped into the Top 14 with Biarritz but the squad is deeper following the signing of the likes of Rob Vickerman, Chris Brightwell and Christian Lewis-Pratt from Aviva Premiership sides Newcastle Falcons, Sale Sharks and Leeds Carnegie respectively. The return of the Army’s Isoa Damudamu to full fitness also adds a valuable weapon to their armoury.

Barden said: “It was the right time for me to move on [from the military] after 14 years that started when I was a 16 year-old.

“I’ve loved it and now I’ve gone from one close-knit family into another one. There are a lot of crossovers between rugby and the military. As a group you have that camaraderie and you do it for each other. We’re a tight group with no egos. We all want the same thing. The ultimate goal and the reason to play is to win and for us that means winning the world series.

“The squad’s been evolving for a long time and we’ve now got some people back in the fold like Rob Vickerman and Chris Brightwell and an up-and-coming one like [Saracens back] Marcus Watson.

“There’s a wide range of personalities and characters. I hope we can relax and that personality in the squad comes out on the field, and that we can express ourselves in the way we play. The coaches give us the tools and the framework but ultimately it’s up to us.”

Self-reliance and problem solving – right out of the Marines playbook – are part of the entrepreneurial urge that will see the launch of pixie-me.com early in the New Year.

Barden, who has been helped by Ben McGregor from the Rugby Players Association, has developed the idea for “a social networking platform that links consumers and businesses, and helps both create new and mutually beneficial opportunities”.

For now, though, it’s put to one side as his teammates focus on the mutually beneficial opportunities on offer in Australia, the UAE and South Africa over the next three weeks.

England have never won the sevens world title – Samoa, South Africa and New Zealand have taken the last three – so making the right start is vital.
Simon Mills

England name captain for HSBC Sevens World Series
Tuesday November 22, 2011
Issued by Simon Mills



Greg Barden training on the Gold Coast today

Greg Barden will lead England in this season’s HSBC Sevens World Series after being named as the side’s new captain today.

The former Royal Marine from Poole takes charge for the first time when England kick off the campaign in the Gold Coast Sevens on Friday.

Barden will be supported by vice captain Rob Vickerman, who joined England Sevens from Newcastle Falcons this summer, with senior player Chris Cracknell next in line when Barden and Vickerman are not on the field.

Head coach Ben Ryan said: “We’ve got a good group of senior players who’ve led the squad well, three of them being Greg Barden, Rob Vickerman and Chris Cracknell.

“Greg has enormous respect from everyone. He’s quiet but when he does speak everyone listens and he leads by example.

“His last appearance for us was in the Hong Kong final when he was absolutely outstanding. He really does epitomise wanting to give everything you possibly can when wearing an England shirt.”

Barden, 30, has appeared in 11 World Series tournaments for England and joined the squad as a full-time player this year after leaving the military. He previously played for Bristol Rugby and Newbury as well as the Royal Navy.

He said: “The captaincy is a huge honour. It’s a big ask from Ben [Ryan] to take on that responsibility but hopefully it’s something I’ll thrive on and enjoy immensely throughout the season.

“Throughout the squad there’s a huge amount of experience that we can draw upon. Rob Vickerman’s been with the sevens before and in the Aviva Premiership with Newcastle and Leeds so his experience is second to none. Chris Cracknell has been in the fold for quite a few years now, James Rodwell’s got 25 tournaments under his belt, the list goes on.”

England trained twice today, first at Surfers Paradise RFC and then at The Southport School - alma mater to Wallabies Tom Lawton, Mat Rogers and Nathan Sharpe - where they played conditioned games against Japan and Fiji.

They face Scotland (03.19 GMT), Tonga (06.25) and Wales (10.52) in Pool D on the tournament’s opening day. The top two sides in the pool are likely to face either New Zealand or Fiji in the quarter finals.

Live TV coverage of the Gold Coast Sevens starts on Friday at 06.00 GMT on Sky Sports 4.

Small point. Adelaide is not on the Gold Coast.

Unhappiness, where's when I was young
And we didn't give a damn
'Cause we were raised
To see life as a fun and take it if we can

England head coach Ben Ryan previews start of HSBC Sevens World Series
Wednesday November 23, 2011
Issued by Simon Mills



Head coach Ben Ryan at training on the Gold Coast

England Sevens head coach Ben Ryan previews the start of the HSBC Sevens World Series. England face Scotland, Tonga and Wales on the opening in Queensland this Friday

On Friday the HSBC World Series starts up again. Normally we are winging our way to Dubai for the opening leg but this time it’s all the way across the globe to the Gold Coast in Australia.

That, in itself, has made the start harder as we go from there to Dubai and finally Port Elizabeth; three tournaments on the bounce, countless time zones and fair bit of jet lag to deal with. I doubt any international side has had that much travel combined with that much intense competition in four weeks but that’s the challenge all the European sides face in the opening three legs.

This England group has worked really hard to get fit, healthy and robust enough to not only survive but be successful this year in the 54 games we will play in the nine tournaments. There have been some big changes in the players’ diets, sacrifices in their social and personal lives, and generally the bar has been raised.

The same though, is the case all around the world as countries begin to mass before the race to Olympic glory. It’s amazing to see the change in all the teams and sevens is truly unrecognisable from five years ago.

Only a couple of years ago, being the fittest team in the world would have given you a significant edge. Now, everyone understands that this underpins performance and they pretty much do whatever it takes to be fit for purpose.

Performance Analysis has also increased. Teams have dossiers of your players’ strengths and weaknesses and they often centre game-plans around it. But the style of most of the teams hasn’t varied too much in the last few seasons. I won’t bore you with explaining how various sides approach the game but bar a few penalty and set-piece moves and kick-off variations, most teams have a DNA that’s relatively identifiable.

This area of our game has seen the most amount of change this year. In fact, it’s been through a complete overhaul. While retaining our desire to offload and keep well away from multi-phase, multi-ruck attacks, the framework and style is totally different.

The onus for us is having a way of playing that suits the type of players we want in our system; this style, our DNA, is simple but stretches the players skill-sets and decision making.

Why the change? England is into the second year of sevens contracts with 12 full-time players on our books. Now we have more contact time, we can really get to grips with how we want to play and approach sevens.

Often when a team becomes full time the obvious plan of attack for is to thicken their playbook - more time, more organisation and more structure. For us, we have concentrated on our skills and decision-making and threaded all that into the framework for attack and defence.

The onus is put firmly on the players to make decisions and for the framework to offer support and options for them. We want players that have great game understanding to come through our system, not neglect it with the crutch of overly structured moves.

It’s not something that will click overnight, we will need some patience but the potential is really exciting this season.

The one thing I do know will appear immediately is the team’s single-mindedness. I’m very grateful to have a group of players that all feel very fortunate to play for their country.

They give every ounce to the cause from the first to final blow of the whistle and will defend and attack for all they are worth. I can’t ask any more and yet again, as another season looms closer, I’m more excited than ever to lead this group. Come on England!

Newcomer Marcus Watson ready for England Sevens kick-off
Thursday November 24, 2011
Issued by Simon Mills



England's Marcus Watson

Young Saracens wing Marcus Watson has a more central role to play as England prepare to kick off the HSBC Sevens World Series.

England face Scotland, Tonga and Wales on the opening day of the Gold Coast Sevens - live on Sky Sports from 06:00 GMT on Friday - in the first of nine global tournaments this season.

Former Under 20 international Watson is the youngest player in head coach Ben Ryan's 12-man squad at the age of 20 and going into his fifth World Series tournament.

And as one of England's midfield playmakers and kickers his role is to pull the strings so that the rest of his teammates - including prolific try-scorers Dan Norton and Nick Royle - can play.

"I'm definitely more comfortable in this game now," said Watson. "When I started in Adelaide I was more of a centre and now I've moved in to the 10 role and I'm getting used to playing, the players around me, and I'm enjoying it.

"When I get the ball on the wing playing 15s the choice is pretty much to run every time. Now I've had to vary my game being the distributor, getting used to communicate more, which is something I'm working on because being that loud doesn't come that naturally to me. I think it's going well so far."

The World Series has a new starting venue at Skilled Park in Robina, a couple of miles inland from the coastal strip and Surfers Paradise. The teams then head for tournaments in Dubai (December 2-3) and Port Elizabeth (December 9-10) before a short winter break.

Watson added: "We went to see the stadium yesterday and it's looking pretty good. There'll be more [of a crowd] than there was at Adelaide last year so the Australian leg of the series is getting bigger.

"The pitch looks nice. It's fast, which is good. I'd definitely say that's an advantage and with players like Matt Turner, Dan Norton and Nick Royle we've got a lot of pace so we might look to get the ball as wide as we can, then we've got people in the middle with some footwork like Isoa Damudamu, so it should suit us."

England had a shot at the world title last season before fading at the final two legs of the series but the full-time sevens programme is continuing to evolve and improve with more players available to head coach Ryan in 2011-12.

"I think we can go really well this year," said Watson. "It's been a pretty hefty pre-season, fitness testing results show we've improved on fitness and speed, and in terms of skills we've got better too because we've been training as a team every week. Things are definitely on the up.

"Our goal is to win [the series], it will be every year, and I'd like to think we've improved from last year, so it gives us a better chance. We finished third last year and we'll definitely look to improve on that."

England’s opening day games in Pool D are against Scotland (03:19 GMT), Tonga (06:25) and Wales (10.52). Follow their progress on twitter @official_rfu as well as on rfu.com and live on Sky Sports.

Poynts: I don't doubt you are correct but they keep repeating it so - hey for the fun I will go with it

hope you are well and looking forward to Christmas on the beach

What do they keep repeating Kath?.

The Australian Leg of the sevens has for the past few years been in Adelaide, but they moved it this year to The Gold Coast.

Unhappiness, where's when I was young
And we didn't give a damn
'Cause we were raised
To see life as a fun and take it if we can

England face New Zealand in Gold Coast quarter finals
Friday November 25, 2011
Issued by Simon Mills

England will face arch-rivals New Zealand at the quarter final stage of the Gold Coast Sevens tomorrow.

They opened Day One of the HSBC Sevens World Series with comfortable victories against Scotland (24-5) and Tonga (19-0).

But the combination of a couple of defensive errors and chances not taken handed Wales a 21-7 win in the final Pool D clash.

Mathew Turner grabbed his third try in three games but Harry Robinson’s two touchdowns booked Wales a date with Fiji in the last eight.

“It wasn’t the way we wanted to finish the day,” said captain Greg Barden. “Fair play to Wales, they targeted key areas and they did well.

“We were lacking in some areas, our defence specifically, and at this level you can’t get away with that. But we’ll stay positive, learn the lessons and take them forward into the quarter finals.”

Earlier England opened the new season by scoring four tries in smart 24-5 win over Scotland.

James Eddie touched down early on to put the Scots ahead but Barden’s first score as England captain was followed by Turner’s slick second, the centre starting the move 70 metres out with a chip ahead and finishing it after almost everyone else had handled.

Fit-again Isoa Damudamu made his first appearance since Wellington in February as a second half replacement and helped set up two more scores for Dan Norton and John Brake.

They weren’t quite as sharp against Tonga before securing the 19-0 win that guaranteed a quarter final place.

Turner’s alertness around a midfield maul set up his second of the day, James Rodwell beat defenders from close range and Watson’s conversion gave them a 12-0 interval lead.

Stoppages punctuated the second half but England killed off any hint of an upset when Brake finished off after another Rodwell break.

Corrected now Poynts

England edged out on second day of Gold Coast Sevens
Saturday November 26, 2011
Issued by Simon Mills



Mathew Turner was England's top scorer at Skilled Park

England were left frustrated after being edged out by New Zealand and Samoa in their second day games at the Gold Coast Sevens.

They gave series champions New Zealand their toughest test of the day in the Cup quarter final – with tries from Chris Cracknell and Isoa Damudamu – before going down 24-14.

Then they dominated long spells of their Plate semi-final against Samoa, Mathew Turner scoring twice, before Paul Perez and Taulagi Afamasaga snatched an unlikely win for the Islanders.

Ben Ryan’s side picked up 10 points from their weekend’s work in the opening round of the HSBC Sevens World Series.

But captain Greg Barden believes there is much more to come – and England have the next two legs in Dubai (December 2-3) and Port Elizabeth (December 9-10) to put things right.

“The margins in this game are so small and a few things did go against us today but you create your own luck and we've just got to keep taking small steps forward, which we certainly are doing,” said Barden.

“It is hard. We hate losing, we're here to win and we're bitterly disappointed. But we've got a chance to put it right straight away next week and that's our aim now.

“We're going to Dubai which is one of our favourite competitions. There's huge support there for England and we're going to get on the plane tomorrow, refocus and evaluate what we're doing, the things we didn't get right and also the things we did get right. There were a lot of them and these are early days in the season.”

England pressurised series champions New Zealand for long spells in the quarter final at Skilled Park, Cracknell smashing his way over after a series of direct attacks before Damudamu scored early in the second half with Marcus Watson’s conversions levelling the score at 14-14.

Frank Halai’s breakaway try put New Zealand’s 19-14 up and Lote Raikabula finished things off with the last play of the game.

England led 7-5 at the break against Samoa, then Perez and Afamasaga left them trailing 17-7. Turner grabbed his fifth try of the weekend to finish as England’s leading scorer but they couldn’t get over in the closing moments when well placed.