GB men's sevens aim high despite part-time status

Harry Glover (left) played in the defeat by South Africa which meant GB missed out on the Paris Olympics

Great Britain men's sevens team can "compete at the highest level" despite remaining a part-time programme, says player Harry Glover.

GB's men failed to qualify for this summer's Olympics - the first time they had missed a Games since the sport's debut in 2016 - with only the women's team heading to Paris.

The World Sevens Series begins on Saturday in Dubai and GB men are aiming to improve on their eighth-placed finish last season, which meant they narrowly avoided relegation.

"With a lack of funding and proximity of players we have made Hazelwood - the old London Irish ground - our home, but it is still a camp-based model at the moment," Glover, who is in Great Britain's squad for the World Series, told BBC Sport.

"We do three-day camps around three times a month - in terms of the preparation it is pretty good but it would be better if it was a full-time programme.

"We've done the best we can and from last year it has been taken up a notch."

In 2023, England, Scotland and Wales decided to join forces and compete solely as GB given that is the team which competes at the Olympics.

Prior to the switch, Glover was involved with England sevens, who previously ran a full-time programme, and finished second on the World Series four times.

After the Tokyo Games in 2021, former GB sevens player Dan Bibby said the "planned future" for the programme was "a joke" amid a Covid funding squeeze that resulted in only eight full-time contracts being offered.

GB struggled in their first two seasons on the World Series, but did pick up medals in Singapore and Los Angeles earlier this year.

"It has been on an upward trajectory - other than missing out on the Olympics - since the move to GB," Glover added.

"For us it is all about building from that, we know we've got a system in place where we can compete at the highest level."

Glover featured regularly for French Top 14 side Stade Francais on the wing

Working or studying alongside the programme is now the norm within the GB team, with Glover balancing his time by running the company - CONKA - he set up with a friend in 2021.

The business, which was launched after Covid-19 stopped England's full-time sevens programme and players were reportedly told to find new jobs, aims to "improve brain health".

Glover, a former Wasps XVs player, picked up a contract with French Pro D2 side Carcassonne when rugby restarted in 2021, impressing on a short-term deal to seal a move to Top 14 side Stade Francais the following season, as he continued to balance professional sport and his own business.

After two seasons with Stade the 28-year-old switched back to sevens before GB's attempt to qualify for the Paris Games so he could balance rugby and his business.

"It is nice to be doing something that is meaningful within the sport," Glover said.

"Back when I was with England sevens full time you wouldn't have had time to do things to this scale outside of rugby."

GB face Ireland, Argentina and Uruguay on day one of the Dubai sevens men's tournament on Saturday, where the men's and also women's new kit and logo will be unveiled as as part of a wider rebrand.

Both teams will then travel to Cape Town, Perth, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Singapore and Los Angeles throughout the season.

GB's squads for World Sevens Series

Men's

Kaleem Barreto (club captain), Ethan Waddleton (captain), Tom Emery (vice captain), Ryan Apps, Jamie Barden, Api Bavadra, Tom Burton, Callum Carson, Matt Davidson, Ollie Dawkins, Harry Glover, Will Homer, Sunnie Jardine, Charlton Kerr, Marcus Kershaw, Luke Mehson, James Pavey, Freddie Roddick, Harri Williams, Morgan Williams, Tom Williams.

Women's

Emma Uren (captain), Isla Norman-Bell (vice captain), Ellie Boatman, Reneeqa Bonner, Abbie Brown, Shona Campbell, Heather Cowell, Grace Crompton, Meg Davies, Eloise Hayward, Vicky Laflin, Georgie Lingham, Alicia Maude, Chantelle Miell, Emma Mundy, Catherine Richards, Jade Shekells, Katie Shillaker, Lauren Torley, Charlie Woodman, Amy Wilson-Hardy.