Scotland backs coach, Gregor Townsend, today backed the ticket launch for the Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens Festival, just days before Scotland compete at the fifth Rugby World Cup Sevens in Dubai.

As the Scotland 7s squad settles into the team hotel ahead of this week’s World Cup, Townsend reflected on his own experience at the inaugural tournament, in Edinburgh, sixteen years ago.

“The 1993 tournament was much more than just a World Cup,” he stressed. “Our season was built around it and we went on a tour in preparation for it.

“Sevens is a big part of the season in Scotland and it was great to be able to play at Murrayfield.

“To play for Scotland at sevens in a World Cup in your own country was a real honour.”

As part of their preparations for the first World Cup, the Scotland squad competed at four tournaments, including the 1992 Dubai Sevens.Having played in last season’s invitational event, Townsend has seen sevens come a very long way in the United Arab Emirates’ capital city.

“I first played in Dubai in 1992 which we won. There were around five to ten thousand people in Dubai in 1992. Hong Kong was the big event with around forty to fifty thousand, but I was out playing in the ten-a-side tournament in Dubai in November and the new stadium is fantastic.”

In a similar fashion to Dubai, Townsend has also seen international rugby sevens come a long way in Scotland where the final event of the IRB Sevens World Series is now hosted – the Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens Festival. Tickets for the event are now on sale priced from £15 for adults, £10 for students and senior citizens and £5 for under 18s, per day.

“The Edinburgh Sevens is a great event as those who have been over the last two years will tell you. It’s completely different to normal events because of the music, the atmosphere and the pace, power and physicality of the international game. It’s a great event for those who haven’t watched a game of rugby before.

“When I played in 1993, teams tended to pick from the XVs, but now, emerging countries prove very tough opponents because they can be much more suited to sevens rugby. It’s become a lot more exciting for the public when there are so many competitive games.” 

Now part of the national management team, Townsend, who helped guide Scotland to victory over Italy in the RBS 6 Nations on Saturday and is the only Scottish player to have represented the Scotland 7s team, win a championship with the national team and be part of a successful British & Irish Lions tour. Having laid testament to much of his success down to the seven-a-side game, Townsend still harbours some regrets that the home side could not register the intended success.

“We carried a lot of injuries into the World Cup following our preparation tour. It was as if we had nothing left in our tanks. We weren’t peaking at the right times. I think we peaked too soon before the tournament. It was that coupled with the pressure of playing in front of a home crowd.

“I suppose one of my biggest regrets now was playing on through injury. But everyone was just so desperate to get out there and represent their country.

“We had Australia and Argentina in our pool and we didn’t get through to the knock-out stages. It wasn’t the tournament we had set it out to be.”

Townsend, who was part of the 1999 Five Nations Championship winning squad having scored a try in each game of the tournament, continued: “Training has changed a lot over the years to involve more mini-sided games which means sevens had evolved to become more beneficial to the XVs.

“It’s vital to be able to take on your opposite man with ball in hand and have a high level of fitness and physicality which all help when training for XV-a-side.”

Scotland 7s’ Rugby World Cup Sevens Pool C fixtures

Day one (5 March) – Scotland v Canada (kick-off 5:32pm local time, 1:32pm GMT)

Day two (6 March) – Scotland v Japan (kick-off 2:18pm local time, 10:18am GMT)

Day two (6 March) – South Africa v Scotland (kick-off 5:58pm local time, 1:58pm GMT)

All of Scotland’s games are broadcast live on Setanta Sports 1 and are also available to view online through www.rwcsevens.com

To purchase tickets for the Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens Festival, simply log onto www.scottishrugbytickets.com, call the 24-hour credit card hotline on 0871 200 1511 or drop-in in person to the Murrayfield Ticket Centre (open 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday).