Final squads for London 7s announced

Phil Mack has recovered sufficiently from a knee injury suffered at the Vancouver 7s to take a spot in the Canadian roster for this weekend’s London event of the HSBC Sevens Series. Mack takes the place of fellow long-time playmaker Nathan Hirayama, who drops out with a thumb injury. The other change sees the return of Harry Jones at the expense of Luke McCloskey.

Canada are in poor form having lost a record 11 consecutive matches and must find form with no further tournament remaining ahead of the final Olympic qualifier tournament in Monaco in a month’s time. They are in the difficult Pool A with Samoa, South Africa, and the USA.

CANADA
Phil Berna, Admir Cejvanovic, Justin Douglas, Mike Fuailefau, Lucas Hammond, Harry Jones, Phil Mack, John Moonlight (capt.), Matt Mullins, Conor Trainor, Sean White, Adam Zaruba

Santiago Gómez Cora has made only one change as he inches closer towards his preferred side for Rio. Racing 92 star Juan Imhoff joins the team with German Schulz dropping out. The Pumas finished in 3rd spot in Paris and look to be on an upward curve.

ARGENTINA
Santiago Álvarez, Santiago Cordero, Juan Pablo Estellés, Rodrigo Etchart, Bautista Ezcurra, Juan Imhoff, Fernando Luna, Matías Moroni, Axel Müller, Gastón Revol (capt.), Javier Rojas, Franco Sábato

Andrés Romagnoli has also opted for only one change to his Brazil side who finished level with Canada at the bottom of the table in Paris. Daniel Sancery joins brother Felipe in the team, with Stefano Giantorno left out. Brazil have already qualified for Rio as host nations and will have their top international players focused entirely on sevens from now through the Olympics.

BRAZIL
Gustavo Albuquerque, Laurent Bourda-Couhet, Lucas Duque, Moisés Duque, Thiago Evaristo, Juliano Fiori (capt.), Lucas Muller, Daniel Sancery, Felipe Sancery, Martin Schaefer, Andre Silva, Felipe Silva

Meanwhile Mike Friday will also be looking for a significant improvement from the defending London champions. Nate Ebner is left in France to get game time with the Falcons, with Ben Leatigaga called up to take his place. The Eagles trail 5th place Argentina by seven points on the overall series table and lead Kenya by only five.

USA
Nate Augspurger, Perry Baker, Danny Barrett, Garrett Bender, Madison Hughes (capt.), Martin Iosefo, Ben Leatigaga, Folau Niua, Thretton Palamo, Ben Pinkelman, Zack Test, Maka Unufe