Scotland 7s coach Stephen Gemmell today spoke of the massive challenge his side faces this weekend in Adelaide as they look to progress out of Pool B which has been branded the ‘group of death’ in the build up to the sixth leg of the IRB Sevens World Series, which culminates in the Emirates Airline Edinburgh 7s Festival at Murrayfield at the end of May.

Of the four pools that make up the early stages of the Adelaide tournament, Scotland find themselves in the only one made up entirely of ever-present ‘core’ teams.

The Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens Festival is the eighth and final leg of the IRB Sevens World Series. It will be held at Murrayfield on 30 and 31 May 2009.

Tickets for each day of the Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens Festival - priced at £15 for adults, £10 for students and senior citizens and £5 for under 18s – are available to purchase by logging onto www.scottishrugbytickets.com, by calling the Ticket Hotline on 0131 346 5100 (open 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday) or in person from the Murrayfield Ticket Centre (open 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday).

Scotland will face last weekend’s Cup winners Fiji on day one before lining up against Argentina and France on day two.

“When you look at the groups this weekend, there are no easy ones,” said Scotland 7s coach Stephen Gemmell. “When you come to Wellington and Adelaide, the standard is very high due to the level of the invitational sides that come here. We just happen to find ourselves in a group made up entirely of core teams.”

Despite coming up against a Fijian squad who are returning back to top form after a disappointing first half of the Series, Gemmell believes that the Scots are still capable of qualification.

“Fiji are on a massive high after their Cup victory at the Hong Kong Sevens, they played magnificently last weekend. It seems to be that at every tournament this year, we’ve been drawn against the winner of the previous event.

“We won two games last weekend beating one team ranked above us and one ranked below so we’re not too despondent with our results, we just need to work on our consistency.

“Argentina are capable of beating anyone and the ‘mercurial’ France are a little like us. They’ve lacked real consistency this season, but they are still able to perform on any given day against any given team.”

Those preparations have been hard in the soaring temperatures of Adelaide compared to the torrential rain in Hong Kong as the Scots seek to cull errors from their game and continue the march to Murrayfield for the Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens on 30 and 31 May.

“We’ve worked on retaining the ball and challenging our opposition with ball in hand.

“The nature of all three of the teams we’re facing on the first two days of competition means that we cannot afford to give them space to work as they’ll deal out the ultimate punishment.

“To qualify, we need to beat two teams ranked above us, and we’ve done that before, so training has focussed on dealing with pressure. However, we’ll just need to wait and see how we get on in live game situations starting tomorrow.”

Adelaide Pool B: Argentina, Fiji, France, Scotland

Scotland 7s’ Pool B fixtures at the IRB Adelaide Sevens (3-5 April):
Day 1 – Fiji v Scotland, kick-off 6:58pm CST, 8:58am GMT
Day 2 – Argentina v Scotland, kick-off 1:43pm CST, 3:43am GMT
Day 2 – France v Scotland, kick-off 4:10pm CST, 6:10am GMT

Scotland 7s squad (sponsor Murray) to compete at the IRB Sevens World Series events in Adelaide (3-5 April): Scott Forrest (Ayr)* CAPTAIN, Mike Adamson (Glasgow Warriors), Andrew Easson (Edinburgh), Roddy Grant (West of Scotland)*, Graham Hogg (Hawick)*, Jamie Hunter (West of Scotland)*, Rory Hutton (Hawick)*, Chris Kinloch (Glasgow Warriors), Calum MacRae (Edinburgh), Hefin O’Hare (Glasgow Warriors), Scott Riddell (Blaydon), Jim Thompson (Edinburgh)

* = Member of Scottish Rugby’s Contracted National Academy