The Llandovery winger scored four tries on day one Down Under, guiding Wales into the Cup quarter-finals via a thrilling 22-19 win over Fiji. After victory over Portugal and defeat to Canada in the pool stages, Wales knew they had to beat Fiji to reach the last eight.
In the end, they did just that with Knight showing his pace and attacking threat to cross for two superb scores. It meant Wales moved on to a clash with South Africa though defeat to the Springboks and a loss to Kenya in the Plate ended Wales’ hopes of silverware.
“Personally, it was a very good tournament. I scored five tries but I would rather be part of a strong team performance than produce just an individual one,” said Knight.
“I think my attacking game was good and I was pleased with my overall performance. The game against Fiji, where we had to go out and win, was a great team effort and I got the two tries which I was very, very happy with.”
Wales’ performance against Fiji was an indicator of just how good they can be, James Davies and skipper Adam Thomas also scoring in the narrow win over Ben Ryan’s side. But after seeing the likes of Canada and Kenya get the better of them, Knight admits Wales must be more consistent throughout each tournament.
“We played a lot in patches in Australia,” he added. “The Fiji game showed what we could do but we were very disappointed with the results on the second day, especially to lose in the manner in which we did against South Africa and Kenya.
“I think we’ve been doing the right things in training beforehand, we just need to get them to all work together and take it onto the pitch moving forward.”
Day two of the tournament showed just how fine the margins are in sevens as late tries saw South Africa and Kenya send Wales to narrow defeats.
Knight said: “We went to South Africa a few weeks ago and won six out of six so we were hoping to carry that form into the tournament. Unfortunately it wasn’t the case but we know the results are there, we just need to make sure we’re consistent over the whole two days.”
Wales’ next task sees them travel to Dubai at the end of November for the second leg of the IRB Series. Paul John’s side sit in tenth place in the overall standings after Australia and despite his impressive performances on the Gold Coast, Knight knows his place in the squad is far from guaranteed.
“Australia is in the past now and I need to keep performing well,” he said.
“There are a lot of boys in the squad vying for places so you can’t rest on your laurels.”
