The head coach of Wasps RFC Ladies 7s, Ollie Bishop, believes his side can finish the summer in style when they compete at the finals of a nationwide tournament later this month – but insists silverware is not the team’s main aim.

Wasps came out on top at the south-east regional play off finals at the Secure Trading 24/Sevens competition last weekend, an RFU-run community sevens' series which sees the country’s best amateur teams come together to battle it out for sevens glory.

The Acton-based outfit will now head to The Rec for a chance to play at the iconic ground of Bath rugby, on July 29.

And despite heading to Bath with both experience and form behind them, Bishop, a 26-year-old PE teacher based in Ashford, insists glory isn’t on his team’s mind.

“We’re just hoping to put in a good performance,” said Bishop, who teaches at Ashford School in Kent. “The girls at this level are competitive. We like to win tournaments, but that’s not our main aim. We like to go to tournaments and make sure we put in performances, be challenged and improve.

“I think we’ve got a good chance of giving it a good go. Regardless of who we’re up against, we’ll have strong team with a lot of experienced capped players. We’ll be going there looking to do well.

“Everyone’s excited and are looking forward to it. It’s all about making sure we’re developing as a team.”

Having played several high-profile sevens outfits this summer, including the Scottish national side and the elite Swedish sevens side, the Jesters, Wasps will head into the finals hoping to emulate the kind of form that has seen them feature in five sevens finals this season.

And Bishop believes playing at such an iconic rugby setting will inspire his team to rise to the occasion even more.

“It was a really good experience to play in the south-east regional down at Hazelwood – London Irish’s training ground. A couple of the girls have played there before. The girls love a big atmosphere, they like the big stadiums.

“Some of the girls have played on big stages, including Twickenham, and it just pushes them to that next level, to want to perform and do well.”

And Bishop, a backs and skills coach at Wasps Ladies during the regular fifteens season, has revealed his delight at how the summer code has been received at the club following the sport’s debut at the Rio Olympics last summer.

“Our sevens programme has definitely increased this year. We had a successful season last year, but we found it hard to have players who regularly turned out for us.

“This year, the girls are so much more enthusiastic and we’ve been able to put out two sides of 24 players at some tournaments.

“More girls are buying into the sevens programme, they’re coming to training a lot more and we’re picking up a lot of new players.

“We’ve found that the sevens game is a great medium to recruit new people.

“The game is a great learning curve and has massively helped the girls progress as rugby players and it’s a good springboard to go back to the regular 15s season.”

England Rugby 24/Sevens, an exciting grassroots sevens competition.

The competition is open for all clubs and players, new and existing to enter, with local qualifiers taking place in 38 locations nationwide this summer.

Visit www.englandrugby.com/24sevens to get involved.