Former North Midlands Under-20s player James Rodwell will become England Sevens’ most capped player in Cape Town this weekend when he surpasses Ben Gollings’ 70 tournament appearances.
The squad remains unchanged from the opening round of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series where England were bronze medallists in Dubai.
Dan Norton scored an impressive four tries in the 38-10 third-place victory over Wales, taking his tournament total to nine and overall figure to 219.
Just two tries in Cape Town would create another England Sevens’ record with Norton becoming the highest try scorer of all time, once again breaking a title currently held by Gollings.
Former Birmingham University and Moseley back-row Rodwell moves into third in the list of World Series’ most capped players, behind Samoa’s Uale Mai and New Zealand’s DJ Forbes, while Norton is currently fourth in the try count, 16 off Collins Injera’s leading 235.
Head Coach Simon Amor said: “It could be a double record-breaking weekend for England Sevens with outstanding achievements for both James and potentially Dan.
“After he reached a world record 69 consecutive appearances last season, this is another landmark for James. His influence is so valuable in helping the team achieve its goals this season as well as supporting the development of the young players involved in the programme. We are fortunate to have James and Dan with their talent, professionalism and experience.”
England finished top of their pool in Dubai with strong performances against Samoa, Russia and New Zealand and have once again been drawn with the All Blacks Sevens as well as Canada and Argentina for round two of the series.
Amor added: “Recovery between tournaments is critical and that needs to be physical as well as mental. Quite often you can carry the mental highs or lows of the previous event so we need to recognise that third was ok but we want to be finishing higher. There is a lot that we still need to work on and some of our decision making needs improving. Dubai was a promising start but we know we can and want to be better.”