Scotland 7s will open day one of the Emirates Airline Edinburgh 7s Festival against Wellington series winners England before taking on Kenya and Canada on Saturday 30 May.

Currently placed second in the IRB Sevens World Series, England provide a mouth-watering start to the series finale at the home of Scottish Rugby before the Scots take on 7s World Cup semi-finalists and Adelaide cup finalists, Kenya, who currently lie sixth in the series and boast the series top try scorer, Collins Injera, who has notched 30 touchdowns in six tournaments.

Supporters are encouraged to take advantage of the advance purchase ticket offer which includes a £35 family ticket for two adults and two children.

Advanced purchased tickets for each day of the Emirates Airline Edinburgh 7s Festival are priced at £15 for adults, £10 for students and senior citizens and £5 for under-18s. Tickets are available by logging onto www.scottishrugbytickets.com, calling the Ticket Hotline on 0871 200 1511 (open 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday) or in person from the Murrayfield Ticket Centre (open 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday).

Scotland 7s coach, Stephen Gemmell, said: “It’s very special to play at home. We’ve shown in the past through performances and results the difference it can make when the Murrayfield crowd is behind us – but it’s up to us to give the supporters something to shout about.

“You can’t take away from the passion involved in a Scotland v England match but it’s also our first game of the day and we need to put in a performance in order to build momentum for the games against Kenya and Canada.

Scotland 7s captain, Scott Forrest, added: “Obviously when I first saw the draw the opener against England stood out. Not many people get to play England at Murrayfield.

“Playing at home can make a big difference. Two years ago we topped the group, beating South Africa for the first time, and last year we qualified from a group that featured South Africa, Australia and Argentina before going on to beat Fiji in the Plate semi-final.

“The England game definitely sticks out as the big match of day one but if we can get the right squad together it’s definitely a match we can win – especially at Murrayfield with the crowd behind us.

“Kenya are a team that are obviously on the up, the squad have been together for about three of four years now and more people are starting to recognise that they’re a very strong side.

“We’ve always had close games with Kenya. They’re used to throwing a lot of guys into contact and getting the ball back. They’re a unique side in that all seven players can sprint the full length of the pitch at serious pace.”

Gemmell agreed: “Kenya have really professionalised their structure as they see 7s as an opportunity to compete at the top table of international rugby.

“7s suits their players as they’re powerful, athletic and very quick, and their tactical improvements over the last three years have come through their increased professionalism.

“If you make a mistake against them you will be punished.”

Scotland will then complete day one’s matches against dangerous Hong Kong Plate winners, Canada, who currently lie four places above the Scots in the series. The match will be the first time the sides have met since Scotland’s 33-14 loss to the Canadians in the opening match of the 7s World Cup in Dubai.

“I think the World Cup loss would have come as a bit of a shock to some supporters. We were disappointed with our performance in that match and are keen to set the record straight”, said Forrest.

Gemmell added: “We didn’t perform in the World Cup against Canada and that hurts me as a coach and it hurts the players but this is an opportunity to show we’re better than that result and I believe that if we perform well then we can beat Canada.

“Hopefully the third game will be an important one because if we want to qualify for the cup from this group we need to win at least two out of the three games.”

THE DRAW

POOL A
South Africa
New Zealand
France
USA

POOL B
Fiji
Australia
Portugal
Spain
 
POOL C
Kenya
England
Canada
Scotland
 
POOL D
Argentina
Samoa
Wales
Georgia

England v Scotland (kick-off 12.09pm)
Kenya v Scotland (3.13pm)
Canada v Scotland (6.56pm)