Under the stewardship of Gareth Williams and his assistant coach Richie Pugh, Wales will be targeting a better start to their campaign than last year when they lost all three games in pool play.
Fiji and Canada are both currently coach-less with Ben Ryan stepping down after guiding the Pacific Islanders to golden glory in Rio while experienced campaigner Sean Duke has added to Canada’s woes by calling it quits on the world series.
Despite their absences offering small chinks of light, Williams believes it could be a case of going into the unknown when the season kicks off, on December 1.
“It will be interesting to see how the transition from being involved in the Olympics for the first time and then going back to the World Series is handled by the various countries.
“That’s why we are concentrating very much on ourselves – there is obviously a little bit of uncertainty on what we are going to face really.
“What we do know, is the three teams we face in our group have traditionally produced good programmes and they all have got a good history in the sevens game. We know it will be a challenge, whatever path their programmes do take following the Olympics,” added Williams.
“The boys have been focussed all summer but the draw adds to the level of excitement – it gives you a sense of how close it is getting.”
