
England 7s call up for Catterick
Newcastle Falcons Tom Catterick will represent England 7s this weekend in the final leg of the European Sevens Grand Prix Series, which concludes in Bucharest.
Captained by former Falcons Alex Gray, England sit on top of the standings after their victory in the Manchester and Catterick, will be hoping to call on his impressive performances in the Premiership Rugby 7s series to help clinch the title.
Speaking from the team hotel in Catterick said “It’s been a full on week. I played 80 mins on Monday in the a league, then on Tuesday morning I was up at 4, at the airport for 5, on a plane down at 6 and in training for 9.30, I was knackered!”
“Since then it’s been full training every day which has been great but tiring. We’re flying out tomorrow for the final leg of the European 7s ready Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It’s going well so far, it’s different – the intensity of the training is another level but I’m really enjoying it”
After captaining the Falcons in the Premiership rugby summer series, Catterick earned many plaudits and some might expect the step up to be an easier one to make, something that the man from Darlington says is not the case.
“I’m not sure about easier, it’s very different. With the Premiership Rugby 7s we only get to do a few training sessions and although there are bits of detail that you go into it’s not too in-depth in that respect. Here though we go into so much detail, you’re looking into every aspect of your game in terms – the level of detail is just unbelievable!”
Settling in well to the team, Catterick says that he and the other non contracted players have been made to feel part of the team and are all relishing the opportunity to try and win a competition for England as the 7s team build up to the start of the HSBC World Sevens Series.
“Simon and Rocky, the coaches, have been really helpful and the boys have been great too. A lot of them are contracted England 7s players but there are four of us going along who aren’t contracted but have been asked to come along and play a part”
“There are loads of quality players who’ve played for England 7s so it’s an honour to be involved and of course it’s always nice to be asked to pull on an England shirt. so I’ll do that at the weekend and just hopefully make an impact”
“England are three points ahead of everyone else at the moment so if we win this weekend we could be the European champions.”
England 7s coach Simon Amor said: “One of the aims of the programme is to help young guys develop and it’s great that we have players from Wasps and Newcastle Falcons in the squad. It’s a great opportunity for them, but equally it’s a chance for our contracted players to get some vitally important game time with the Gold Cost around the corner.”
“We have a young team for this tournament – the average age is around 21 – but it’s an exciting team and the aim is still to go out there and perform well. We’re top of the standings at the moment and that’s ultimately where we want to finish.”
England kick off the action at 10am on day one on Saturday, against Georgia, before playing Wales and Belgium later.