Two Loughborough College players have been awarded contracts by England Women for the upcoming sevens season.
Supporting the programme for 2017/18 will be Celia Quansah and Rugby World Cup finalist and Olympic squad member Megan Jones.
Fly half Megan, 20, who is studying for a degree in Sports Science with Management at Loughborough College, will be a full-time contracted player while fellow Sport degree student Celia Quansah has been offered a part-time contract.
Celia will train with the women’s squad and will compete in international academy tournaments alongside the full-time players.
England sealed their spot in this year’s World Cup final against New Zealand with a powerful semi-final performance against France and Megan played a pivotal role - with both a try saving tackle on 12 minutes and a dramatic finish to the game as she scored the final try on 78 minutes to take it to 20-3.
Megan was also a Britain squad member in Rio in a year which saw Team GB represented at Olympic level for the first time in 108 years.
The England Women sevens 17/18 season will consist of a number of major global tournaments, starting with the HSBC Women’s Sevens World Series where England will compete across five stages worldwide, followed by the 2018 Commonwealth Games which is set to take place on the Gold Coast in April.
In the summer, England Women sevens will compete in the Rugby Europe Grand Prix Series and having successfully secured qualification last season, the Rugby World Cup Sevens which will take place in San Francisco in July 2018.
And James Bailey, who will take up the post of Women's Sevens head coach, believes the experience the younger members of the squad gained last season will be hugely beneficial to them next term.
"Last season enabled us to unearth new talent in the sevens programme and crucially allow younger players to gain invaluable playing experience in major tournaments such as HSBC Women's Sevens Series," said Bailey.
"We are looking forward to continuing to build on performances from last season and bring this talented group together and start preparations for what will be an exciting season for sevens.”
Pictured: Loughborough College rugby player Celia Quansah – awarded a contract for England alongside fellow student Megan Jones - in action for Loughborough Lightning