Former England sevens captain Chris Cracknell has brought the curtain on his glittering international career in the shorter format of the game.
Cracknell has enjoyed six successful years playing at the highest level, during which time he became one of the first full time professional sevens players.
In total the 30-year-old played 33 tournaments on the HSBC Sevens World Series, scoring 17 tries for his country in the process.
As well as captaining his country, his career highlights include England’s first win in the Wellington tournament in 2009, beating New Zealand in the final, before the same team went on to claim the London Sevens title later that same year.
Joe Lydon, RFU Head of International Player Development said: “We would like to thank Chris for his services to the England Sevens programme.
“He has had a distinguished career and made a significant contribution to our sevens team over the years. We wish him the very best in the future.”
The news comes as the current 2014/2015 crop of players – who are currently sixth in the world standings and two places outside the required position to qualify for Rio 2016 come the end of the season – found out their opponents for the next leg of the World Series in Wellington.
England will open their account on February 6 with pool games against New Zealand, Canada and Papua New Guinea as they go in search of an improvement on their fourth-place finish last time around.
© Sportsbeat 2014