Graham Shiel takes over Scotland Sevens
Graham Shiel will take over as Scotland Sevens head coach after Stephen Gemmell was appointed the head of player development with the Scottish international team.
A former Scotland centre, Shiel started his coaching career as a player coach with Stewart’s Melville before becoming the academy manager at Edinburgh.
Shiel then became the assistant coach of the under-19’s Scotland national team in 2006, also working as a player development coach with the national academy.
The former Scottish international will now take over the Scotland Sevens team. Upon his promotion, Shiel said, "This role offers a fantastic, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to coach one of Scotland's top representative sides on the world stage...I've been
fortunate enough to have played at the top level throughout my career, but I always wanted to continue that relationship with the game through coaching and now, to be named as head coach, is a fantastic honour."
The former centre played for Border Reivers and Edinburgh before winning his first cap for Scotland.
Shiel will make his debut as the Scotland Sevens coach in the HSBC Sevens World Series in Dubai on 3 December.
Scotland will face South Africa, Australia and Russia in a difficult group. "We've had recent first-hand experience of South Africa and pushed them very close. We'll take a lot of confidence from that going in to Dubai and will look to back up that performance,"
stated Shiel.
The Scots will also face a daunting test against Australia if they are to progress.
"Australia were probably the team of the 2009-10 series based on the improvements they made and their performance, which culminated in a successful run of games in London, Edinburgh and the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. They are very strong at the moment."
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