Thank goodness for Lisa Thomson. Without her Scotland, the country that invented sevens rugby, would not have a player at the Olympic sevens tournament that starts in the Stade de France in a few days time.
At least the 26-year-old will be the perfect sevens rugby ambassador for her country in Paris as she was born in Melrose where the sport was started by local butcher Ned Haig back in 1883.
While it is a great achievement for her to make the Great Britain women’s team, having just the one Scot taking part in rugby sevens at the Olympics - the Great Britain men’s team failed to qualify - is a massive disappointment when you take into account Scotland’s historic links with the sport.
Apart from Thomson and Jasmine Joyce of Wales the remaining members of the 12-strong women’s squad are all English internationals.
The surprise omission is Scotland’s Rhona Lloyd who was part of the extended Olympic squad but cut from the final one and didn’t even make the stand-by list.
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The Great Britain men’s team had the embarrassment of not even making the Olympics despite having plenty of avenues to get there.
First they lost to Ireland in the final of last year’s European Games with the Irish claiming the one Olympic place up for grabs at their expense.
All was not lost as they then took part in a final Olympic qualifying event in Monaco last month.
They topped their pool and beat Tonga and Spain in the quarter and semi-finals respectively but when qualification was on the line they lost 14-5 to South Africa in the final.
Former Scotland sevens captains Robbie Fergusson and Jamie Farndale, both part of the British team, announced their retirements with immediate effect after the defeat to the Springboks.
At least off the field there will be Scottish sevens representation at the Olympics with Ciaran Beattie from Selkirk in charge of the women’s team with his fellow countryman Scott Riddell his assistant. Scotland cap centurion Sean Lamont is also part of the backroom staff.
As Beattie, a former Scotland sevens captain, was in overall charge of the women’s team and the men’s one that failed to make it to Paris he will have mixed emotions after qualifying success and failure.
It will be interesting to see how much of a priority the new SRU performance, director, when he or she is appointed, gives to sevens rugby as the way the governing body has ignored the shortened version of the game in recent years has been criminal.
They meekly agreed to the sudden merger of the Scotland, England and Wales sevens teams back in 2022 - although they will play separately if the Commonwealth Games ever goes ahead - and there are those within the corridors of power at Murrayfield that can’t see the merit of sevens.
They feel the money to set up a proper sevens programme is better spent on boosting the playing budgets of professional sides Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors.
Others who have played the game - 15s and sevens - such as 1990 Grand Slam legend Scott Hastings disagree and feel the shortened version of rugby deserves more support as it improves the skill-set of players.
He can point to the fact that players such as Scotland international George Horne improved his game by playing sevens.
Ross McCann who was part of the Great Britain men’s team that failed to make the Olympics was called up by Scotland coach Gregor Townsend for the current four-match summer tour and made his debut for the 15-a-side national side on the wing against Canada when he came on as a replacement.
Hastings is not alone in believing that sevens has a vital role to play in world rugby.
He has support from former Scotland sevens player James Fleming who believes more players should be part of the UK sevens programme. When the British men’s team failed to make the Olympics, he took to “X” to call for an inquiry as to the lack of support from the home unions for the sport.
South African World Cup winner Bryan Habana, who also played sevens, is also a massive supporter and believes the game sharpens the rugby brain. He is delighted that both the Springboks men and women’s sevens teams have made the Olympics.
The popularity of the game that Scotland invented is growing to the extent that at this Olympics the top stars of the world want to take part.
The standard is so high that former Australian 15-a-side captain Michael Hooper tried and failed to make the Wallaby squad for the tournament.
The 32-year-old announced he would be retiring from all forms of rugby after missing out on selection for Paris.
World class French scrum-half Antoine Dupont was so keen to play sevens at the Olympics that he missed the Six Nations to ensure he played in enough qualifying tournaments to make the French team.
Dupont is the biggest name in the Olympic sevens - male or female -with the tournament being one of the most anticipated sporting events by the French public who love their rugby.
Each country has its own star player with Argentina’s former world sevens player of the year Marcos Moneta another to keep an eye on while in the women’s tournament there are Maddison Levi of Australia and Michaela Blyde of New Zealand who are sure to run in the tries.
Sevens rugby was first introduced at the 2016 Rio Olympics when the GB men’s team won the silver medal after losing 43-7 to Fiji in the final with Mark Bennett and Mark Robertson of Scotland in the team.
Ask either man and they will tell you picking up an Olympic medal is one of the highlights of their respective careers.
The women’s team lost their bronze medal match that year against Canada. In the next Olympics in Tokyo neither the men’s nor women’s team made it onto the medal podium.
This year it is all down to the Great Britain women’s team to come home with a medal with former Hawick High School pupil Thomson, who was part of the GB team at the last Olympics in Japan, set to play her part.
The women’s team under coach Beattie put the finishing touches to their Olympic plans in Saint Germain en Laye, 12 miles outside Paris, before moving into the athletes village.
First up is the men’s tournament that starts at the Stade de France this Wednesday, two days before the official Olympic opening ceremony. It is the first sport to get underway.
Host nation France with their star Dupont take on New Zealand, Argentina, Fiji, Australia, Uruguay, Ireland, USA, Kenya, Samoa, Japan and South Africa.
The first day of the women’s event is the following Sunday with France, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, USA, Brazil, Canada, Great Britain, South Africa, Fiji, Japan and China battling it out for the medals.
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