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England glad to have Phillips back for Sevens

The world's best sevens player, Ollie Phillips, will make a welcome return to the England fold for the first time this season when he makes an appearance at the Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens and the Adelaide Sevens next month.

The IRB Sevens Player of the Year in 2009, Phillips has missed the first four legs of the current season owing to his 15s commitments for French Top 14 club Stade Francais, but England sevens coach Ben Ryan has somehow managed to convince the French club to release his star player for the all-important Hong Kong leg as well as the Adelaide Sevens.

In a further boost, England, who are presently languishing in fourth place in the IRB Sevens Series, have also drafted in Josh Drauniniu for both the Hong Kong tournament from March 26-28 at Hong Kong Stadium and the Australian event the week before.

'It's fantastic to have Ollie and Josh back, and their experience and class will add to an evolving squad with Ben Gollings who, as captain, is playing some of the best rugby of his career,' Ryan said.

The inspirational Phillips, who led the team in Hong Kong last year, played seven out of the eight legs in the IRB Sevens Series and was largely instrumental in guiding them to two tournament victories - Wellington and London - en route to finishing third in the standings behind South Africa and Fiji.

His absence has been felt badly as England have struggled. They have reached only two semi-finals - in Dubai and Wellington. At the last leg in Las Vegas, England were beaten in sudden death by Kenya in the Cup quarter-finals.

England trail leaders New Zealand, who have 84 points, by a massive margin of 34, and with Samoa and Fiji in second and third place in the IRB standings, will need to go at least into the Cup finals in Adelaide and Hong Kong if they are to revive any hopes of challenging for the overall title this season.

'It will take a big effort for us to get ahead of the three teams in front, but anything is possible. We are travelling to Sydney for a training camp before the next two tournaments and the real hard work starts in Adelaide,' said Ryan, happy to have Phillips back in the sevens fold.

England are drawn in pool E at the Hong Kong Sevens with regional rivals Wales, and Japan and home team Hong Kong.

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