Wales Sevens dealt injury blow

Newport Gwent Dragon Wyatt is Wales’s most experienced Sevens player having already played in two Commonwealth Games competitions, but he pulled up in training with a calf injury and further tests revealed that he had suffered a stress fracture.

Wyatt could be out of action for around a month but is expected to stay out in Melbourne to support the side. His place in the 12-man squad now goes to fellow Dragon, Gareth Baber, who is already in Melbourne with the squad on a coaching capacity. Wales’s Sevens campaign gets underway on Thursday at Melbourne’s Telstra Dome. Coach Dai Rees is obviously saddened by the news but has been pleased with the preparations of his side.

He said: “Gareth is a quality player and has huge Sevens experience and it is a blow, but up until that news we have had a very good seven day build up in Melbourne.

“Training has been good and we have worked the boys very hard in training. We’ve played a couple of warm up matches against Canada and the Cook Islands. Their styles were both very different which is good preparation for us. They were intense games and the players have learnt a lot from them.”

Wales face Namibia, Kenya and pre-tournament favourites New Zealand who won their sixth IRB Sevens title last season. Rees is bullish about his side’s chances: “Realistically our aim is a quarter-final spot but I would hope that we could go further.”

If Wales can get into the quarter-finals, that would see them compete on day two of the Commonwealth Games at the 65,000 Telstra Dome which is a sell-out. Rees is aware that many of his squad would not have played in front of such a large crowd and as a result took them to the stadium to watch a game at the weekend.

He said: “A lot of the players will not have experienced playing in front of such a large crowd before. So I took them to watch a game at the Telstra Dome at the weekend and it was a useful exercise. There was a real buzz about the place and players can’t wait to get cracking.”