// Behind the Seven

Meet the Team

Fourteen players get on a pitch. Rather more people make that happen — coaching it, managing it, patching it back together afterwards and running the club off the field.

Ciaran Leeson
Head Coach

Ciaran Leeson

Co-founder and player-coach. A former international sevens player who now coaches at international level himself.

  • Former Ireland international, rugby sevens
  • MSc Strength & Conditioning
  • Coach, IRFU IQ Rugby programme — XVs and 7s
  • Head Coach, Hammerhead 7s Women's
  • Head Coach, Suffolk County Women's
  • Strength & Conditioning, Coventry Rugby
  • DPP Strength & Conditioning, Bristol Bears

Credentials per Zenith Performance.

Liam Leeson
Head Coach

Liam Leeson

Co-founder and player-coach. Splits his time between coaching, lecturing and still playing at a decent level.

  • England Students 7s
  • BSc Sport & Exercise Science
  • PGCE and QTS, University of Buckingham
  • Women's Head Coach, Bury St Edmunds RFC
  • Coach, Hammerhead 7s Men's
  • Coach, Suffolk County Women's
  • Course Director and Lecturer, West Suffolk College

Credentials per Zenith Performance.

Chairman

Danny Leeson

Co-founder, and the one who runs TR7 off the pitch. Entries, sponsorship, kit, logistics and every other job that has to be done before a squad turns up somewhere ready to play.

  • Co-founder, TR7 — The Rugby 7s
  • Director at MANOTAN, TR7's main sponsor — the company has backed the club since its first season
Gavin Tippins
Team Manager

Gavin Tippins

Tighthead prop, twenty-plus years at the same club, and still playing at 45. Runs the squad on tournament days — and plays in it.

  • Started at tighthead in the Coney Hill XV that won the RFU Community Cup Counties 3 Championship at Twickenham, May 2026 — beating Hucclecote 17–10
  • Over 20 years at Coney Hill RFC
  • Coaches the women's side at Coney Hill
  • Played in the TR7 squad that won The Rugby Advertiser Cup

Twickenham details per Roger Jackson, The Local Answer, 4 July 2026.

Stu Turner
Strength & Conditioning Coach

Stu Turner

Keeps the squad in a fit state to play five games in a day — which, given we don't roll substitutes, matters more than it might elsewhere.

  • Personal trainer since 2009, based in Bury St Edmunds
  • Sports Science, University of Exeter
  • Managing Partner, The Health Hub Bury St Edmunds
  • Further qualifications in nutrition, performance and exercise referral
Kobe Aponesto
Chartered Physiotherapist

Kobe Aponesto

Pitchside for every tournament. In a format this relentless, having a chartered physio on the touchline is not a luxury.

  • Chartered Physiotherapist

// Guests

Guest Coaches

People who have given up a day to work with us. Sevens is its own discipline, and time with someone who has played it at the top end is worth a season of theory.

Beth Wilcock
Guest Coach

Beth Wilcock

Joined us as guest coach at the Hamplified 7s. Her read on when to hold width and when to go was sharp all day, and the younger lads took a lot from it.

  • Wing, Harlequins Women — Premiership Women's Rugby
  • England Sevens — first capped in the 2019/20 World Series season
  • England U20s; England senior development player, 2021 Six Nations
  • Guest coach, Hamplified 7s — July 2026

Portrait courtesy of Harlequins FC.

Guest Coach

?

To be announced.

Guest Coach

?

To be announced.

Want to work with the squad? Get in touch →