WALES BACK IN SEVENS ACTION

And Wales are promised a gruelling “welcome back” when they tackle Samoa in their opening match, followed by the other Pool B clashes against Fiji and Tunisia.

“The Samoan game is the big one for us,” said Wales sevens manager Dai Rees. “It will be our first game back on the sevens circuit and Samoa are ranked No 4 in this tournament.

“How we do in that match will set the tone for the rest of the day and for the next two weeks when we move on to the second round of the Series in George, South Africa.

“Then if we get something out of the Fiji game we would be happy and we are most certainly not taking Tunisia lightly – they beat South Africa last year in a major upset so that will be a tough match as well. That is the beauty of sevens.

“We have had three great days of training out here and we had a practice game against the White Hart Marauders, which was a big help in giving the boys having some real opposition.
“All 12 players will get a start during the day in one of the three matches and, although we have not yet finalised our starting line-up for Samoa, I am confident we have got the right mix of youth and experience in the squad.”

Wales Sevens squad v Samoa, Fiji and Tunisia: J Merriman (Gloucester Rugby), Richie Pugh (Ospreys, captain), Gareth Baber (Newport Gwent Dragons), Jonny Vaughton (Ospreys), James Hook (Ospreys), Jonathan Edwards (Llanelli Scarlets), Rhys Oakley (Newport Gwent Dragons), Rhodri McAtee (Penzance), Aled Brew (Ospreys), Tal Selley (Llanelli Scarlets), Wayne Evans (Cardiff Blues), Chris Davies (Newport Gwent Dragons).