Stuart Pearce helps Team GB prepare for Rio
By PA Sport
Last Updated: 07/07/16 6:20am
Stuart Pearce has been drafted in to help Simon Amor's Olympics Sevens squad unite under the Team GB banner in Rio this summer.
Former England football full-back Pearce has addressed Team GB's wider Olympics training squad as head coach Amor races against time to draw the best sevens stars together from England, Scotland and Wales.
Pearce talked of common passion, but has also advised sevens boss Amor on selection dilemmas, given his own stewardship of Team GB's 2012 football side.
"I've had a lot of conversations with Stuart Pearce about how he managed to bring that GB team together for London 2012, the challenges he faced in a short space of time, to bring the home nations together," said Amor.
"Stuart told me to smash the Team GB message with the players.
"He obviously had the difficult choice of not picking David Beckham, he chose Ryan Giggs instead.
"The biggest thing he said was 'hammer home that Team GB message, how big it is'.
"Everyone you speak to says it doesn't matter what you've done in the past, there's nothing that compares to this, the Olympics, the size, the scale, the feeling.
"And the other thing he said was to try to enjoy the journey, because he said it goes by just like that, in a second.
"We've tried to enforce that with the guys and they've worked so hard so far."
Amor has insisted the top-performing players will be selected to travel to Brazil, irrespective of their nationality
He will finalise his 12-strong squad selection on July 19, before the GB men's outfit face New Zealand, Kenya and Japan in group-stage action, starting on August 9.
"There has been no quota set," said Amor of the impending Team GB selection.
"As soon as I got the job, I committed 100 per cent to sending the very best team we could possibly to the Olympics."
