Introduction to the Teams

THE APACHE

Apache have been faithful supporters of the Sevens over the years. Led by Adam Hurst who teaches at Shiplake College they are sponsored by Royal Sun and Alliance and Hambleden Estate. They have a close affiliation with Henley rugby club for apart from Adam, who is now coaching and captaining the Henley Alliance side, they also include Henley favourite Barry Reeves and new Henley Hawks signing James Farndon , the Army utility back. The Henley flavour is strengthened by the inclusion of two former players, lively scrum-half Dan South and back rower James Docherty. This summer they have played in tournaments across Europe at Marbella and Rome where they came away with the plate trophy.

Squad (Provisional) Jonny Underwood, Gareth Williams, Warren Coles, James Docherty, James Farndon, Jonas Hurst, Allan Gill, Barry Reeves, Dan South, Adam HurstHurst, Allan Gill, Barry Reeves, Dan South, Adam HurstHurst

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BRITISH ARMY

The British Army have been great supporters of the sevens in recent seasons. They won the tournament in 2002 and 2003 and with their squad of Fijian players they have carried on the close association that teams from their native land have had with Henley Sevens over the years with Fiji Spartans, in essence the national team, securing a hat trick of cup wins in the late nineties, Indeed the current Army squad includes Appo Satala a member of the Fiji world cup winning squad and Joe Kava who has played rugby league for Fiji. They are captained by Mark Lee who has also captained Scotland at sevens. Most of the side have played for the Army in tournaments all over the world and recently won the Singapore sevens.

Squad ( provisional ) : Bull Buluimakua,Mark Lee(capt), Joe Kava,Zak Vakasawaqa, Phil Tawayaya, Able Qolikibua, Alex Swan, Tui Tuitubou, Kim Vuadreu, Sak Yabia, Appo Satala, Sol Roko, Eo Smith.

CORNISH PIRATES

Last year's winners return to defend their title. They will include some of last year's squad including a former favourite at Dry Leas, Duncan Roke and the dynamic Rhodri McAttee who starred in the winning squad and went on to play for Wales in the IRB sevens. They will also have Henry Barratt an exciting young centre recently signed from Harlequins, and the experienced Cornish wing/full back Lewis Vinnicombe who caused the Hawks some bother scoring tries against them for Redruth last season. Another new acquisition appearing in the sevens squad is Chris Cracknell the influential flanker who has gone west from Newbury.

Squad : Chris Cracknell, Owen Hambley, Sam Betty, Adam Nicholls, Henry Barratt, Rhodri McAttee, Duncan Roke, Louis Webb, Lewis Vinnicombe, Sam Parsons

DINAMO MOSCOW

We welcome Dinamo to the tournament, probably the first Russian club side to play sevens in the UK . Founded originally in the 1930's, they are the oldest club in Russia. They have been winners of the club championship both pre and post war. The side is an unknown quantity but Russia had some good results in the IRB tournament held at Twickenham in early June and it would be surprising if the squad in this tournament did not feature some of the players who played there.

Squad (from) : Valery Kartsev, Alexander Syun'kov, Vladimir Nekrasov, Nikolay Goroshilov, Andrey Khorokhorin, Alexey Yanpoiskiy, Stanislav Zhiznyakov, Sergey Sidorov, Pavel Kosmin, Raf'ael Yakubov, Evgemy Gavrilov, Alex Shishov, Dmitriy Perov, Kolpakov Stanislav,

HARTPURY COLLEGE

Hartpury make their second appearance at the Henley Sevens although they were only able to field a weakened team in last year's tournament. Recent winners of the British Universities Sevens they are widely regarded as part of the Gloucester Academy set-up. Indeed Mark George, Tom Rawlings, James Merriman, Kyle Palmer and George Evans have all played for Gloucester 'A'. Merriman represented Wales in the Commonwealth Games Sevens and Danny Hondo Zimbabwe in the IRB World Sevens . The Hartpury coach Liam Middleton served in that capacity for the Zimbabwe team and he is also the Great Britain Universities coach

Squad: Mark George, Tom Rawlings, James Merriman, Kyle Palm, George Evans, David Crouch, Tristan Roberts, Danny Hondo, Owen Evans, Dan Norton

HENLEY HAWKS

The Hawks won the Plate competition in 2001 and will be captained by James Winterbottom who scored five tries in the 2002 tournament. This year he was skipper of the England Counties team that defeated the French Amateurs. The squad will include some of last year's first team squad Jon Tenconi, Paul Dunckley and Steve Drake. They will also list some exciting new backs - Sam Caben, wing, from Bath University and Danny Wells, centre, from the Bath Academy and the return of Tim Barlow who has gained an Oxford Blue since leaving Henley. Stean Williams the experienced flanker, signed from Stourbridge, was on loan to the Hawks for a few weeks back in 2002.

Squad ( from): James Winterbottom (Capt), Paul Dunckley, Jon Tenconi, Stean Williams Steve Drake, Same Caben, Danny Wells, Pete Burroughs, Simon Tattersall, Tim Barlow, Martyn O'Mahony

MARAUDERS

The Marauders are one of the most widely travelled sevens or tens sides in the country and have played as far afield as Hong Kong and Dubai yet they have been regulars at the Henley Sevens since 1995 winning the Cup in 2001. This year they are captained by Howard Graham one of the most successful and experienced exponents of the sevens game having captained the British Army on two occasions when they won the Middlesex Sevens with the opposition coming almost exclusively from Premier clubs.

Squad: Howard Graham, James Reilly, Adam Roberts, Matt Miles, Kevin James, Karel Dixon, Jack Smales, James O'Brien, James Henthorn, Ed Burrill

NEWBURY BLUES

Newbury Blues had a successful Henley Sevens in 2005 winning the Plate competition. They again expect to field a strong side led by Tim Walsh the former Australian sevens player, a recent signing from Pertemps Bees (Birmingham/Solihull), and they expect also to feature a number of young players who have represented England at levels up to under 21 level including Mark Simpson - Daniel the brother of the England international who has played premier rugby for Sale Sharks. From the full Scotland squad comes George Hayter whilst others to represent the Scots at youth level are the Kent County cricketer Kenny Bingham and Andy Dalgleish last year's Oxford University skipper, both of whom have played for the Barbarians.

Squad ( Provisional) Andy Dalgeish, Glen Cooper, Chris Morgan, Gregor Hayter, Chris Rainbow, Mark Simpson Daniel, Tim Walsh, Mark Ireland, Kenny Bingham, Liam Gibson

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS

The Saints have been great supporters of the Henley Sevens over the years. Although they have never won the Cup they were runners-up in two tournaments losing to the British Army in 2003 and the Cornish Pirates in 2005. They however learnt from that latter experience by winning the Middlesex Sevens which is now owned by Premier rugby and is an exclusive tournament for their clubs

The Saints side will be a mixture of Academy players and those with 1st team experience including Adam Barnard and Alex Rae who with Tom Powell

appeared in the sevens here last year.

Squad : Tom Powell, Alex Rae, Matt Burke, John Brake, Adam Barnard, David Smith, Joe Ansbro, Will Harries, David Lavery, Danny Pointon

QUANT JE PUIS

French sounding but this team playing in the sevens for the first time are using the motto of their old school Stonyhurst. This public school has been a nursery for a umber of international players the best known of which is Kyran Bracken who had 51 caps at scrum-half for England. One of the burgeoning stars of the game , Anthony Allen the young Gloucester and England under 19 player is another old boy. Henley Hawks' lock/No. 8 Carl Cimpoias, who is a Romanian 7's international is in their squad whilst Will Matthews has played sevens for England. Another familiar name to Hawks' supporters is Lee Starling who has played league games in the back row for both London Welsh and Esher at Dry Leas. They also include Matt Leek from Esher who played for England under 21's and was in the Saracens !st XV squad a few seasons ago.

Squad: Will Matthews, Carl Cimpoias, James Greenwood, Harry Rowland, Lee StarLing, Matt Leek

SAMURAI INTERNATIONAL

Ever present at the Henley sevens for the past five years the Samurai always field quality sevens sides. This year there is a strong Scottish flavour for coached by Stephen Gemmell the Scotland Academy Coach they a captained by Jamie Murray of Melrose , Oli Brown (Boroughmuir) and Ali Warncock (Borderers) all of whom have played sevens for Scotland. Three of the squad come from Blackheath .

Squad: James Murray (Capt), Angus Martyn, Oli Brown, Matt Cnnon, Llyr Lane, Ma\tt Vaughan, Gert de Kok, Ali Warnock, Kirk King, Chris Malherbe, Richard Carter

SCORPIONS

The Scorpions have fielded sides at Henley for the past six years and always feature exciting players. This year is no exception as Hawks supporters will vouch for as Henley's leading try scorer in 2003/4 and 2004/5, Nnamdi Obi, who played for England 7's in 2005, is in their squad alongside Nigeria 7's flyer Ken Aseme. Scorpions always have a strong Welsh element and for this tournament Austin Howells(Bridgend), Wales 7's Ben Davies , Welsh u/21's, and Aled Bevan, Welsh u/21's both from Neath are in their line-up.

Squad : Ken Aseme, Will Oldham, Ejike Uzoigne, Ben Davies, Aled Bevan, Rich\rd Briggs, James Donovan, Nnamdi Obi, Austin Howells

SPANISH BARBARIANS

(VIATOR COSTA BLANCA)

Colours: Blue with white panels

We welcome the Spanish Barbarians back to the Henley Sevens. They made their debut last year scoring impressive victories over Millfield Old Boys and St.George

Samurai and giving the strong British Army side a run for their money before losing 22-12. They were unlucky not to reach any of the finals.

They are consistently one of the best sevens sides in Spain and their president Iganacio Davila has much to do with the organisation of the Benidorm Sevens which Henley won many years ago . They will making a strong bid for honours in this year's tournament.

THE VOYAGERS

The Voyagers were newcomers to the tournament last year. They will again have a strong Welsh element in their squad including Mat Jones, Dan Collier and Ollie Boggis of London Welsh and also Australian under 21 player Jamie Perry.This is not surprising as they were founded in 1954 by a small group of London Welsh supporters with the aim, as a charitable club, to raise funds to support injured amateur sports people. Since then the club has grown and by various fun raising events have raised thousands of pounds to give a better quality of life for those who have been incapacitated when playing sport.

Squad: Mat Jones, John Cottam, Dan Collier, James Perry, Eric Doms, Ollie Simes, Jake Simes, Dylan Jones, Dave Lee, Ollie Bogis

WEST INDIES EXILES

We welcome back the West Indies to Henley Sevens who won the Shield event in 2003. Their team manager is former Hawks player Ewan Wilson who will feature in the squad alongside four other players who have represented the West Indies the best known of which is Kurt Johnson whose dynamic running has caused the Hawks a lot of trouble over the years in league matches. A former colleague of his at Coventry, Simon Brocklehurst, is in the squad. He has played for the Barbarians and now plays for Nuneaton who will be playing against the Hawks this season.

Squad: Kurt Johnson, Simon Brocklehurst, Mike Melford, Chris Macloed, Jonny Logan, Simon Dyson, Geoff Gregory, Nigel Arismendez, Jamie Vernon, Ewan Wilson

WORCESTER WARRIORS

Worcester Warriors are newcomers to the Henley Sevens. They have entered a young talented side from their Academy. All have represented their countries at under 19 level and below with six from England including Martin Freeman, wing, who has played sevens for Young England. Three have Welsh honours and Alex Grove, centre/ fly-half , has played for Scotland U/!8's and U/19's.

Squad: Martin Freeman, Pat Benson, Oliver Mansbridge, Daviv Walsh, Chris Pennell, Greg Evans, Miles Benjamin, Mat Cox, Haloti Molitika, Alex Grove