England, Scotland and Wales will unite to field a combined GB Sevens team for the 2021 season ahead of the Olympics in Tokyo.
The Rugby Football Union, Scottish Rugby Union and Welsh Rugby Union have secured funding from a commercial partnership with the National Lottery.
The men’s and women’s GB Sevens teams will compete in the HSBC World Sevens Series in the build-up to and after next summer’s Olympics in Japan.
Charlie Hayter will be the team leader.
Hayter will also fulfil assistant coach roles across both men’s and women’s programmes.
Scott Forrest will be head coach for the women’s side, having been in lead roles with Scotland Women’s 7s since 2012, while Tony Roques will join as head coach for the men.
James Rodwell, the most capped rugby sevens player of all time and part of the England coaching team since 2018, will complete the set-up, assisting both the men’s and women’s programmes.
Scotland, England and Wales men’s squads traditionally compete on the world stage as separate nations but will come together for next year.
The announcement is for 2021 and comes after England’s men and women’s sides had qualified on behalf of Team GB for the now delayed Tokyo Olympics.
There will be further details on the performance-based programme and players selected. An initial 24-strong women’s squad had been selected in February 2020 before the games were postponed.