England to be deprived of Sevens stars at Commonwealths

ENGLAND look set to miss out on the services on a host of their sevens stars for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi with top clubs unwilling to release their prized assets during a hectic October.

CONSPICUOUS BY ABSENCE: Ollie Phillips is not in England's 17-man provisional Commonwealth Games squad (Action Images)

The 17-man training squad announced by coach Ben Ryan is the missing the likes of Wasps flyer Tom Varndell and Stade Francais's Ollie Phillips. 

Varndell has four full international caps to his name and was integral to England's march to Commonwealth Games silver in Melbourne four years ago.

Back then senior internationals Mathew Tait and Danny Care were also selected for 2006 Games duty, while four years previous in Manchester, the England Sevens side contained a galaxy of Premiership stars, including Josh Lewsey who helped England lift the World Cup 12 months later.

Phillips, currently on the books of Stade Francais, is another with considerable Sevens pedigree, having been named IRB World Sevens Player of the Year last year, but the Paris club have already blocked his release for the IRB Seven Series and show no signs of softening their stance.

The main stumbling block is a scheduling clash with Delhi 2010, which gets underway in October in Delhi with one round of Aviva Premiership matches and back-to-back Heineken Cup weekends taking place during that period.

That has ensured England Sevens head coach Ben Ryan has been restricted to selecting from a pool of development squad players.

But despite a couple of high-profile absentees Ryan is content with what he has at his disposal.

"I'm very pleased with this initial training squad," said Ryan.

"We've got experience, we've got youth and we have the expertise of taking part in big competitions. It gives us the backbone you need to bring through some exciting young players."