England captain Emily Scarratt has fond memories of playing in France. Hardly surprising as the last time there she scored 16 points as England were crowned Women’s Rugby World Cup 2014 champions following a stirring 21-9 victory over Canada in the Paris final.

This weekend she returns to France with for the fifth and final round of the HSBC World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series in Clermont-Ferrand with memories of the amazing crowds and fantastic atmosphere still fresh in her mind.

“France is one of my favourite places to play,” admitted Scarratt. “They always get phenomenal crowds making huge amounts of noise, probably not always in our favour but just to have that atmosphere is fantastic. 

“We’re really looking forward to going there and no doubt France will put on an amazing tournament again.”

England will arrive in the Auvergne region of France on a high after winning the last round in Canada, beating defending Langford and series champions New Zealand 31-14 in an enthralling final which was a perfect advertisement for the women’s game.

That success, England’s first on the series since winning in Houston in 2013, saw them become the first side other than Australia to win in 2015-16, the series leaders having lifted the silverware in Dubai, Sao Paulo and Atlanta.

CHOMPING AT THE BIT

Scarratt believes the key to the victory was simple – the result of everybody in the team playing to their strengths.

“We re-jigged how we played between Brazil and the two tournaments in America and Canada and concentrated on playing to people’s strengths,” explained Scarratt.

“We’ve got some fantastic skill sets throughout our team, which are very varied and by allowing people to go and do what they are good at, it breathed in a huge amount of confidence in the team which hopefully we can maintain.”

England will face Spain, USA and series debutants Kenya in Pool A this weekend and, with the Rio 2016 Olympic Games right around the corner, Scarratt is expecting every team to come out firing for the final round of the series.

“It’s everybody’s last opportunity to play against everybody else in the world and I think all teams will have put in a huge amount of work in between the last tournament and this one and will be looking to really show what they’re about pre-Olympics.

“Everybody is going to be chomping at the bit to go and put a really good performance out there, like we did in Langford, and give themselves some confidence going in to what is ultimately going to be the biggest tournament of our lives.”

A MASSIVE STEP UP

Scarratt and her team-mates can take a lot of heart from being the only side to beat Australia this season, in pool play in Atlanta and then again in the semi-finals in Langford, but that doesn’t mean they will be taking anything for granted in Clermont-Ferrand.

Especially not with the way the prospect of winning an Olympic medal has seen the competitiveness of the series continue to rise as the road to Rio 2016 continues. 

“The competitive nature of it has seen a massive step up this year,” the 26-year-old admitted. 

“You just need to look at some of the results, especially from the earlier rounds like Dubai when you saw a lot of underdogs winning when people perhaps didn’t expect them to. 

“And that’s been prevalent throughout the season and evident within the men’s series too, which is fantastic for the game of sevens heading towards the Olympics. 

“It’s also really exciting for supporters and helps to grow our game. It just makes us acutely aware of how much we need to stay on the ball and really work on that consistency.”