The Great Britain national rugby sevens team is the women's Olympic representative team of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

at the rugby sevens tournament at the Summer Olympic Games. The team played their first competitive match at the 2016 Summer Olympics after England finished in an Olympic qualifying place at the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series. They qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics through England winning the 2019 Rugby Europe Women's Sevens Olympic Qualifying Tournament in

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering an ...

. Great Britain finished in fourth place after losing in the bronze medal match to Fiji. They participated at the

2021 Canada Women's Sevens The 2021 Canada Women's Sevens was held as two "Fast Four" invitational rugby sevens events on consecutive weekends in late September that year. The first was hosted at BC Place in Vancouver and the second at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton. T ...

and won the tournament back to back in

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and

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

Olympic history

When rugby sevens was admitted to the Summer Olympics in 2009, it was unknown how Great Britain could qualify.

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

; three of the four nations that make up the United Kingdom that Great Britain represents at the Olympics, all compete separately within international sevens competition. It was suggested that if any of them finished in an Olympic qualifying spot then Great Britain would qualify through them. However, the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

(IOC) and

International Rugby Board World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international ru ...

(IRB) clarified that Great Britain must select only one nation to be the only one able to obtain qualification as it was viewed that the three individual nations could give Great Britain three chances to qualify compared with other nations only having one. The individual British rugby unions selected England to be the lead nation due to their professional sevens set-up. This also meant that Wales and Scotland could no longer participate in the repecharge competition on behalf of the

Sevens Women Grand Prix Series The Rugby Europe Women's Sevens, previously the FIRA–AER Women's Sevens until 2013, is a series of regional championships for women's international rugby sevens in Europe. Prior to 2012, the annual tournament is held over two days, typically ...

if they qualified due to participation in the repecharge being limited to nations who could qualify for the Olympics. England secured Great Britain's qualification to the 2016 Summer Olympics by finishing fourth in the 2015 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series after defeating the United States in the third place playoff in Amsterdam. Following qualification for the 2016 Summer Olympics, a new Great Britain Sevens organization was set up called GB Rugby Sevens. Despite England being the nation that qualified Great Britain for the Olympics, it was announced that the Welsh Rugby Union and the

Scottish Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; gd, Aonadh Rugbaidh na h-Alba) is the governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Styled as Scottish Rugby, it is the second oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league s ...

would join the

Rugby Football Union for Women The Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW) was the governing body for women's rugby union in England. As of 2014 the RFUW and Rugby Football Union, RFU combined to be one National Governing Body. The headquarters are at Twickenham Stadium, Londo ...

in forming the executive board and committee to decide the selection of the team. In May 2015, Joe Lydon was appointed as the performance manager responsible for recruiting the head coach for the Great Britain women's rugby sevens team.

Eligibility

While England was the team that qualified Great Britain for the Olympics, the Great Britain national rugby sevens team is able to select players from Wales and Scotland as well as England in accordance with IOC eligibility rules based on passport ownership. The

will make recommendations for the team however the

British Olympic Association The British Olympic Association (BOA) is the National Olympic Committee for the United Kingdom. It is responsible for organising and overseeing the participation of athletes from the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team, at both ...

will be the body that makes the final determination for places. Players would be eligible for selection if they had played in the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series, Rugby Europe International Sevens or any other invitational tournament 14 months before the Olympics. Northern Irish players, according to the IOC's rules as British passport holders, would have been eligible to represent Great Britain. However the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), which governs rugby in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

and the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

together, demanded that Northern Irish players only play for the Ireland national rugby sevens team. However, it was stated that Northern Irish players could legally challenge that demand, particularly if Ireland failed to qualify due to differences in World Rugby and IOC qualifying criteria.

Tournament record

World Rugby Sevens Series

The women's team, along with the men's, competed in the first two (

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

) of the 2021–22 Sevens Series as a sole team, rather than the individual teams (

). This was in keeping with an agreement to continue playing as one team throughout 2021. Points accumulated by the team were later distributed to the constituent nations fairly, and in proportion.

Summer Olympics

Squad

Sevens Series squad

Olympic squads

Notes

References

{{Women's national rugby sevens teams Great Britain at the Summer Olympics Women's national rugby sevens teams R