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Hill hat-trick gets Wales off to flier

Hill hat-trick gets Wales off to flier

A hat-trick by Craig Hill saw Wales kick off their Rugby World Cup Sevens campaign in Dubai with a comfortable 31-5 victory over Zimbabwe.

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The Newport speedster played down his own personal achievement and paid tribute to his team mates as he became the first player in the tournament to record a hat-trick.

“It was a great team effort by the guys. I just finished the moves off as they were the ones who put me into space,” he said.

“It was definitely a good start for us. Zimbabwe may not have played as well as they could have, but we didn’t let them. We are just now focussed on our next game tomorrow against Uruguay.

“Our structures were good against Zimbabwe and it was pleasing to see that everything we had worked on in training came off. We worked well in defence but we all know Uruguay is going to be a physical battle.”

The match wasn’t even a minute old before Dragons speedster Aled Brew raced over for the first try of the match. Newport’s Hill then got in on the act against the African minnows when he finished off a clinical move by the Welsh. Aled Thomas added the conversion to give Wales a 12-0 lead.

Zimbabwe hit back through an unconverted try by Gerald Sibanda to give Wales a 12-5 lead at the break.

Wales put themselves firmly in control when they scored in the opening minute of the second half when Hill raced over for his second try. Again Thomas added the extras.

The Scarlets Lee Williams sped over for his first try of the tournament to give Thomas another easy conversion with Hill grabbing his hat-trick in the last minute of the game.

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