Wales were runners-up to England last season in Sweden and have been seeded second for this weekend, where head coach Rhys Edwards will be hoping his side can reproduce the form displayed in the Sainsbury’s School Games in Manchester last weekend.
Wales East won four of their six games in the tournament with a narrow loss to Wales West and a draw against Scotland denting their chances of a top-three finish.
For the national squad this weekend, seven players from the East team have made selection with the remainder coming from the West team.
“It is going to be tougher this year as other countries have had a year to prepare for it,” said Edwards.
“This tournament will be the same format as senior seven’s tournaments like the World Series. The girls have been working hard in camp at our Cardiff base at Sport Wales. We are looking at the girls to kick on from this tournament.”
Edwards will be pinning his hopes on flying winger Emma Hennessy scoring tries by the bucket load while captain and outside half Claire Morgan could also be a key figure.
Wales West finished fourth last week but only because they lost in extra time to a golden point against England North after the scores were deadlocked 17-17 at full time.
But even in defeat, the young, inexperienced group who competed against teams older and more experienced, showed enough promise and talent to suggest the combined efforts of the two squads this weekend could pose serious problems to England’s defence.
Edwards, added: “The Under 18s have impressed us throughout the summer training period and The UK School Games was an invaluable experience for the squad.
“We have seen them put the weeks of training into practise in competition and from last weekend we were able to select a strong squad to represent Wales in Rugby Europe in Belgium”.
