This weekend’s Emirates Airline Edinburgh 7s Festival at Murrayfield is poised to be a carnival of fun in the sun as temperatures are forecast to reach around 20°C at the home of Scottish Rugby, giving fans a glorious opportunity to enjoy both the warm weather and the very best in international rugby sevens.

Not only will temperatures be high off the field, but among the 16 teams taking part in the final leg of the IRB Sevens World Series, Scotland find themselves up against one of the two contenders for the Series title, England, in their first Pool C clash at 12:09pm on Saturday.

Supporters are encouraged to take advantage of the ADVANCE purchase ticket offer (which includes a £35 family ticket offer for two adults and two children (£15 saving per day!). This great money-saving offer ends at 5pm today (Friday 29 May).

Tickets purchased in advance for each day are priced at £15 for adults (£20 on the day), £10 for students and senior citizens and £5 for under 18s. Tickets are available to purchase from www.scottishrugbytickets.com, the 24-hour Ticket Centre Hotline on 0131 346 5100 or in person from the Murrayfield Ticket Centre (8.30am to 7.15pm Saturday and 9am to 6.45pm Sunday).

Scotland 7s coach Stephen Gemmell believes that the key to his players building on their success at last weekend’s Emirates Airline London Sevens, where they reached their first ever Cup semi-final, is down to hard work, self belief and a passionate home support.

“It’s a huge opportunity to play in a world event in your own back yard,” he said. “The home crowd can be a massive advantage for us.

“You look around the world and South Africa won in George, England won in London, USA were semi-finalists in San Diego and Australia achieved a top-six finish in Adelaide.

“We need to take full advantage of being at Murrayfield with the home support behind us.”

Many Scotland fans may have seen the London Sevens last weekend where the Scots reached that historic Cup semi-final spot. And having topped the ‘group of death’ on day one before coming from 0-21 down to defeat Portugal in the first game on day two, Gemmell believes that such results will instil belief in both players and supporters alike.

“People will be coming here having seen last weekend hoping and believing that we can beat England and hoping and believing we can qualify out of that group rather than turning up and just hoping that we can do it.

“You’d be naïve if you said there was no additional pressure, but I think there is real belief in this squad from everybody so we need to support that expectation with our performance.

“As we saw last weekend, the margin for error is so small and games can turn on a wrong decision, a poor bounce of the ball or a turnover, so we need to limit those unforced errors out of our game if we are to continue performing at the level we have been.

“There’s no greater incentive than playing at Murrayfield and it just so happens our first game is against England.”

That first-up clash against the Auld Enemy has definitely added a little extra spice to day one of the tournament as Scotland seek to overthrow the side currently ranked second in the world. However, no matter what happens against England, Scotland must keep their focus for the entire weekend.

Gemmell continued: “The first game of the tournament is always important. It puts down a maker, but it can’t be all about putting our eggs in one basket because win, lose or draw against England, we need to get ourselves ready for Kenya. That’s something we did really well last weekend.

“You can’t shy away from the fact that it’s Scotland against England at Murrayfield in our first game and that’s massive for anyone involved in Scottish rugby. There’s no bigger game. Come nine minutes past twelve, it’ll be the most important game this group of players will have ever played together. It’s great being involved in something like that knowing you’ve got a chance to win it.”

In terms of the overall event, South Africa are in the hunt of a single Series point which would clinch the Springboks the world title.

New Zealand were crowned world champions in 2007 and 2008 so Gemmell believes that it’s good news for world rugby sevens to get a new name on the trophy this year. However, it would be even better news if Scotland were to go one step further and book a place in the Cup final of their home tournament.

“We all know that the Series is finishing in Edinburgh and that’s great for the Scottish public because spectators get to see the top two teams, South Africa and England, fighting it out to win the World Series. There’s also going to be a new name on the World Series trophy.

“This weekend, the challenge is going to be bigger than it was in London. The only expectation was among the squad, but now there’s a big expectation this weekend because we’ve been a top four team in the last tournament.

“The encouraging thing is for me in terms of the players is that they’ve been relaxed but very professional about how they’ve gone about their business. There’s been a real team spirit and sense of belief among the players. I think that’s come from not only achieving a semi final place but the manner in how they reached the semi final having come back.

“Another thing is that they’re not content about being the first ever team to reach that semi final. They all know they can play better than they did at the weekend and they know they will have to play better this weekend.

“We need to go and be as effective and accurate about how we go about our business and if we can be we will give ourselves a real opportunity.”

Scotland 7s squad to compete at the Emirates Airline Edinburgh 7s Festival (30 and 31 May): Scott Forrest (Ayr)* CAPTAIN, Mike Adamson (Glasgow Warriors), Roddy Grant (West of Scotland)*, Colin Gregor (Glasgow Warriors), Allister Hogg (Edinburgh), John Houston (Edinburgh), Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh), Sean Lamont (Northampton), Hefin O’Hare (Glasgow Warriors), Colin Shaw (Glasgow Warriors), Jim Thompson (Edinburgh), Andrew Turnbull (Edinburgh)

* = Member of Scottish Rugby’s Contracted National Academy

Edinburgh Pool C: Kenya, England, Canada, Scotland

Scotland 7s’ Pool C fixtures on day one (Saturday 30 May) of the Emirates Airline Edinburgh Sevens Festival: England v Scotland (kick-off 12.09pm), Kenya v Scotland (3.13pm), Canada v Scotland (6.56pm)